World news | The Guardian

Sebastien Lecornu suggests more curfews could be introduced to quell unrest after weekend protestsNordic correspondentMore than a month after the country went to the polls, Sweden is still without a government.Then it will be possible to sort out wether there are other alternatives. We want to have a government with S, V, C and MP (the Social Democrats, Left, Centre and Green parties). But the Centre party wants to have one in the middle. In which case it is good to find out whether it is possible or not." Continue reading...

Heather Hallett, chair of the Covid inquiry, has just published the report from the inquiry's module 6, looking at what happened in care homesBadenoch says Britain needs tax cuts.We need to get out of the way of job creators who make our country richer. We need to encourage risk taking, wealth creation, enterprise.Britain's tax burden has never been higher. You are taxed on the heating in your home. You're taxed at the petrol pump filling up your car. You're taxed when you insure that car. You're taxed if you take the family away on holiday. You're taxed if you stay in the UK thanks to Andy Burnham's tourist tax. You're taxed to buy a home, taxed to live in a home, taxed to pass on your home. This is clearly not working. Britain does not feel better off.Andy Burnham wrote in The Times yesterday about the moral outrage of the current benefit system. But as far as I could work out, his answer is to spend even more on benefits. Continue reading...

RAF Typhoon fighters will fly defensive missions over cities and infrastructure, in extension of UK support for RiyadhRAF Typhoon fighters are to protect Saudi Arabia from attack by Yemen's Houthis, flying defensive missions over the country's cities and critical infrastructure, as western allies step up their intervention in the escalating conflict.The operation - the most significant military mission signed off by Andy Burnham as prime minister - will involve RAF pilots attempting to shoot down Houthi missiles and drones, after attacks on Saudi airports and oil facilities. Continue reading...

Inquiry chair says failure to advise care homes to isolate people discharged from hospital was significant oversight' UK politics live - latest updatesThe care sector was an afterthought" during the Covid-19 pandemic, and government failures caused the virus to spread like wildfire" among vulnerable and elderly people, a public inquiry has found.Heather Hallett, who is leading the Covid-19 inquiry, said it was a significant omission" that the government did not advise that patients discharged from hospitals into care homes should be isolated, causing the virus to spread rapidly among residents and staff. Continue reading...

Government planning tougher security measures after protests over high cost of living descend into violence

Stricken UK water supplier lines up John Hutton as independent chair designate if takeover goes aheadThe group of Thames Water creditors pursuing a 10bn rescue deal for Britain's largest water supplier has lined up a former senior Labour minister to chair the company, as it tries to win over the government.The creditor consortium, called London & Valley Water, said on Tuesday that Lord John Hutton had been selected as independent chair designate of the Thames Water board, if the consortium's takeover of the utility goes ahead. Continue reading...

Independent MP is in critical yet stable condition after man allegedly did U-turn to strike her twice with his car

Father of 43-year-old Tarrawingee man who allegedly attacked the independent MP says incident is devastating and unfathomable'

Victoria police arrested the 43-year-old Tarrawingee man on Monday afternoon after the incident in Wangaratta

Result is a victory for prime minister Mark Carney and supporters of Canadian unityVoters in Canada's Alberta have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to begin a process towards independence, delivering a victory for the prime minister, Mark Carney, and supporters of Canadian unity.With more than 1.5m votes counted, 76% supported remaining in Canada, while close to 24% backed beginning a process toward separation, according to unofficial results from Elections Alberta. Continue reading...

Apparent attempt to hack Rade Baji's iPhone comes amid efforts to undermine landmark criminal caseA Serbian prosecutor who investigated the authorities' allegedly illegal scheme to help the Trumps build a tower in Belgrade has been targeted with advanced spyware, expert analysis indicates.The finding suggests a disturbing new element in the authoritarian Serbian regime's campaign to undermine what is believed to be the first criminal case related to global moneymaking drive of the US president's family, which critics describe as a pay to play" scheme trading the Trump administration's favour for business opportunities. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Adrian Ramsay calls conference motion a distraction and says councillors should maintain coalitions where possible

Latest ONS data presents mixed picture amid slump in job vacancies and analysts warning labour market is running on idle'

Subject to Change: A Dance for David Bowie will explore how the musician practised a form of artistic reincarnation', says choreographer Marcos MorauLet's dance," sang David Bowie in 1983, commanding: Put on your red shoes and dance the blues." That call is to be answered - with footwear TBC - by an international dance production featuring new choral arrangements of songs from throughout his career.Subject to Change: A Dance for David Bowie will be staged at Sadler's Wells in London in autumn 2028 after a world premiere in Luxembourg. It will visit Tokyo in 2029. The show will explore how Bowie practised a form of artistic reincarnation" according to Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau who is taking inspiration from the superstar's transformations into personas such as Aladdin Sane and the Thin White Duke. Continue reading...

Cabinet colleagues have previously called for an increase but chancellor feels it might ultimately cost the TreasuryJohn Healey will not raise capital gains tax in next week's budget, despite previous calls to do so from cabinet colleagues including Louise Haigh and Wes Streeting.The chancellor has decided that any increase might ultimately cost the Treasury if wealthy individuals defer the sale of assets or move them out of the country, according to Treasury sources. Continue reading...

After a protest clip went viral, a teenager's life was torn apart by threats that sent her and her family into hiding. Plus, a book on citizen journalismBefore 24 July, a person I will call R was preoccupied with the ordinary routines of teenage life: experimenting with makeup, grumbling over mathematics homework and hanging out with friends at a tea stall.That month, as the fever of student protests spread across the country, the 15-year-old watched on her phone as young people poured into Jantar Mantar, the designated protest site in Delhi, demanding education reform. She went too. But an 11-second video clip from the protest site, in which she made crude and profane remarks about the prime minister, Narendra Modi, upended her life. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed

Online betting was the direct and paramount' cause behind Kyle Hudson's decision to take his own life, inquest finds

In today's newsletter: The prime minister's campaign against noisy passengers has struck a chord with commuters. Whether anyone hears him remains to be seen.Good morning.Me again, back from the October school holiday (a week in glorious Wales, thanks for asking) and ready to hear your commuter woes. For our prime minister, it's one of the most annoying things on public transport": maybe you're trying to work, or read, or you've finally got your kid to sleep, when someone starts blasting sound from their phone at full volume.France | The prime minister has said he has asked regional authorities to impose partial curfews in some cities after the government admitted police had lost control" in several places during violent weekend protests around the country.UK politics | Andy Burnham has told officials to rip up their plans for how to fix Thames Water and present him with more radical options for what to do with the stricken company.Yemen | At least 53 people have been killed in a Houthi ballistic missile attack on a training camp for Yemeni government forces in the largest single loss of life since the country's civil war reignited in September.Israel | Israeli police have detained 10 people in a rare raid against settlers, after a weekend of extreme violence in the occupied West Bank including an attack on US photojournalist Heidi Levine.Reform | Nigel Farage undermined his own claims that a 5m gift was for security when he referred to the money as a reward for Brexit, according to one of his closest aides. Continue reading...

Critics said images of detained former leader were a stunt by the military to end country's diplomatic isolationMyanmar has delivered presents from Britain's King Charles to Aung San Suu Kyi, releasing rare photos of the imprisoned former leader in what critics said was a stunt by the country's military to end diplomatic isolation.A presidential spokesperson said on social media that home ministry officials handed over two gardening books on soil, along with one sealed envelope and a sealed diplomatic pouch", from King Charles, who is known to have an interest in planting and the environment. Continue reading...

Selina Cartmell announces season including Stockport-set version of Phaedra myth by Simon StephensA theatre boss has promised to channel the pioneering spirit of Manchester" and be brave and fearless" as she unveiled a new season of work, two years after a deeply damaging censorship row.Selina Cartmell, the artistic director of the Royal Exchange in Manchester, revealed details of 2027-28 productions that include a retelling of the Munich air disaster and a modern Stockport-set version of the ancient Greek myth Phaedra. Continue reading...

Rise in economic hardship and changes in attitudes towards migration could explain drop in support, experts sayPublic support for the NHS's founding principles - that it is free to use, available to everyone and tax-funded - has fallen over the last five years, research has shown.Backing for all three pillars dropped between 2021 and 2025 across the UK population, except for a small rise in millennials' support for the NHS being funded from taxation. Continue reading...

Transport hub will offer through trains between Leeds and Manchester with turn-up-and-go' serviceA new railway station will be built in Bradford to transform how people travel across the north", the government has announced.The station will be at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) scheme, built on the current Bradford Interchange site but allowing through trains between Leeds and Manchester. Continue reading...

Witness breaks down in tears, tells court I was scared' after son declined to report alleged kissing and touching by broadcaster

The bestselling author says her books will no longer be supplied to UK bookshops over fears of prosecution. Zoe Williams and Haroon Siddique reportFor now there might be a copy or two of Intermezzo left kicking around in your local bookshop - snap it up if you haven't already, because soon that will be it.Last year, Sally Rooney said she would be using her royalties to support Palestine Action, a group that is proscribed as a terrorist organisation under UK law. Since then, thousands of people have been arrested for supporting the group. Now, faced with the risk of prosecution under terrorism legislation, Rooney and her publishers have decided to stop supplying her books to retailers in the UK. Continue reading...

Northern Territory government announced sweeping reforms of child protection sector in May, just days after the Warlpiri girl was found dead Warning: This article contains images of and references to Indigenous Australians who have died

Ricky Jefferies says he had just finished cutting hair when he grabbed and held the driver who allegedly deliberately struck the Indi MP

Police officer had operation at St Vincent's hospital two days after Jesse Baird and Luke Davies were shot dead in Paddington terrace in early 2024

Australia's politicians have been facing increasing threats and abuse. It can no longer have been rising for Australia's politicians and they can no longer be dismissed as social media noise or harmless comment

Curfews to apply to parts of cities including Paris, Nice and Lyon after days of violence on French streets

Crackdown marks latest escalation in the Trump justice department's push to target alleged noncitizen votingThe US Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against 28 green card holders in California accused of fraudulently registering to vote and casting illegal ballots.The crackdown marks another escalation in the federal government's ongoing efforts against alleged noncitizen voting, efforts that Democrats and voting rights groups say are part of a strategy by the Trump administration to sow doubt in the results of the upcoming midterm elections. Continue reading...

Envelopes containing powder come weeks before midterms as federal agents try to identify who is behind campaignMore than three dozen members of US Congress have had their offices targeted with envelopes containing white powder, less than three weeks before the 3 November midterms, as federal agents try to identify who is behind the campaign.The latest is the Virginia Democrat Suhas Subramanyam, whose Leesburg district office was evacuated on Monday after an envelope containing a suspicious substance arrived. He said the office was cleared quickly, adding that acts of political intimidation have no place in our country". Continue reading...

As Cop17 kicks off, records since 1921 show more bee species declining than increasing in all parts of Europe except the AlpsMost of Europe's wild bee species and about half of its hover fly species have declined over the last century, a study has found, as a UN biodiversity summit begins in Armenia.Records since 1921 show more bee species are declining than increasing in all parts of Europe except the Alpine region. The richness of bee and hover fly species suffered a persistent drop in the Atlantic and Continental regions, the study found, though trends in other regions were mixed or even positive. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Utility seen as litmus test' of PM's promise to bring essentials of life' under public controlAndy Burnham has told officials to rip up their plans for how to fix Thames Water and present him with more radical options for what to do with the stricken company.In an early test of his promise to bring the essentials of life" under public control, the prime minister is urging his advisers to go back to the drawing board and create a new list of policies for the utility. Continue reading...

While the party's MPs went into hiding, it was left to its failed byelection candidate Matt Goodwin to defend itIt was the dog that didn't bark in the night. After Sunday night's ITV expose of widespread racism and misogyny within Reform, you might have expected one of its MPs to have taken to the airwaves on Monday morning to defend the party's honour. To try to persuade viewers that the real problem lay with the journalists who couldn't stop themselves from investigating Reform rather than the fact that the party's bigotry was endemic.Instead, we got nothing. Every Reform MP was otherwise engaged. Were too busy having breakfast. Nothing from Nigel Farage. Nothing even from Robert Jenrick. Maybe he realised he had crashed and burned a few days earlier by suggesting it was just one of those things. One of life's little mysteries. The BBC was riddled with paedophiles and Reform was awash with racists, said Honest Bob. No big deal. Every organisation had its crosses to bear. Continue reading...

More than 160 offshore rig workers plan walkout amid rising tensions between unions and oil companiesNorth Sea workers are preparing to strike at oil rigs across the ageing basin over the coming weeks in a sign of growing tensions between trade unions and oil companies.The Unite union said on Monday that more than 160 offshore rig workers would take part in a 24-hour strike from Wednesday that could severely disrupt" UK fuel supplies. Continue reading...

In now-removed post, Miatta Fahnbulleh criticised home secretary's proposal to extend qualifying period for settlement in UKThe energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, appears to have criticised Shabana Mahmood's migration policy in a post on her constituency website, in which she suggested she had concerns that a longer settlement process could affect integration.Fahnbulleh has since removed the critique, which appeared in a write-up of a community meeting in Peckham, her south London constituency, in September, saying it was not a true representation of her views. Continue reading...

More than 200 mostly young people said to be injured after ballistic missile attack on training camp for government forcesAt least 53 people have been killed in a Houthi ballistic missile attack on a training camp for Yemeni government security forces, making it the largest single loss of life since the country's civil war reignited in September.The attack on al-Alam camp in the southern Shabwa province was said to have injured more than 200 others, mostly young recruits, and was described as a disaster by the country's UN-recognised government. The injured were taken from the police and army training camp in the Jardan district to a hospital in the local capital, Ataq, where pleas for blood donations were made. Continue reading...

Bear wandered into Mono county free libraries branch ahead of opening, snacking before wandering new releasesA California library on Wednesday had a visitor worthy of a story book on the 100th anniversary of Winnie-the-Pooh: a black bear that wandered inside, reportedly raided the snacks and helped itself to a jar of honey.On Wednesday, a black bear walked into the Mammoth Lakes branch of the Mono county free libraries at about 6.10am, more than four hours ahead of its 10am opening time, the library director, Josef Bopp, told local news outlet KMPH. Continue reading...

Downing Street delivered a rare rebuke to a senior member of Donald Trump's administrationAsked why the Lib Dems were opposed to a third runway at Heathrow when they professed to be in favour of growth, Cooper said she did not accept that a third runway would produce all the benefits its supporters claimed.She explained:On Heathrow, it is clear from looking at all of the economic analysis of airport growth over the last few years that many of the promises made by all sorts of different airport companies simply haven't come to bear.The promise of higher wage jobs hasn't been substantiated. Often it's lower paid jobs, and often not as many as they've claimed. Continue reading...

Undercover footage of Dan Jukes raises fresh questions about Reform leader's statement that 5m gift was for securityNigel Farage undermined his own claims that a 5m gift was for security when he referred to the money as a reward for Brexit, according to one of his closest aides.The apparent admission came in undercover footage seen by the Guardian in which Dan Jukes says that it is priced in" for Farage to profit from politics. Continue reading...

Neso control room staff accused senior executives of covering up extent of blackout risks during June heatwaveIndependent investigators have found significant and concerning cultural issues" at Great Britain's grid operator after control room staff accused senior executives of covering up the extent of blackout risks in the UK during the June heatwave.An external legal firm tasked with investigating a series of whistleblower allegations against the National Energy System Operator (Neso) raised concerns over how high levels stress among control room engineers was handled by the company. Continue reading...

Paul Mackenzie and his church set up sect that ordered followers to starve themselves and their children, say prosecutorsA Kenyan court has found the starvation cult leader Paul Mackenzie and about 30 others guilty of murder over the deaths of 190 children and one adult in one of the world's worst cult-related disasters in recent history.Mackenzie was arrested in 2023 after police received a tipoff, and weeks later authorities began uncovering bodies in shallow graves in the Shakahola forest near the coast in south-eastern Kenya. Continue reading...

Last weekend there were mass protests across France, with more than half a million people estimated to have been involved. The unrest included rioting, looting and violent clashes with outnumbered police in cities including Paris, Marseille and Limoges. The interior minister conceded that police lost control' in some cities, while President Emmanuel Macron demanded a full security review. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian's Europe correspondent, Jon Henley - watch on YouTube Continue reading...

Scottish university's annual tradition once involved giving out raisins but fancy dress and shaving cream now in vogueNobody at the University of St Andrews in Scotland seems to remember how Raisin Monday became a giant foam fight. For 600 years, first-year students have taken part in the ritual of thanking older students for mentoring them through their first few weeks of university life.Traditionally, freshers would give their elders a pound of raisins - hence the name. This Monday however, hundreds wore fancy dress as they streamed on to St Salvator's lower college lawn at 11am armed with cans of shaving foam, covering one another in soapy clouds as they have for the past few decades. Groups of students dress as Smurfs, mice, bananas, grandmas, sunflowers and chefs to participate in the annual rite of passage. Continue reading...

Dearth of bananas coincides with poor apple harvest and lack of summer stone fruit

Far-right activist is charged with two counts of harassment causing fear of violence to two MailOnline reportersThe far-right activist known as Tommy Robinson used bullyboy, intimidatory tactics" to threaten journalists and cause them to fear for their safety, a court has been told as his harassment trial got under way.Robinson, 42, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is charged with two counts of harassment causing fear of violence to two MailOnline reporters, Andrew Young and Jacob Dirnhuber. He denies all charges. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Chris Hinchliff urges environment watchdog to block rules that will allow almost 16,000 new homes in one of UK's most protected areasThe environment watchdog is being urged to intervene in cash to trash" planning rules that will allow almost 16,000 new homes in the Norfolk Broads despite the damage to one of the UK's most environmentally protected areas.Labour's flagship planning reforms allow damage to protected habitats and species to be overlooked if developers pay into a central nature restoration fund, which is used for conservation actions at a later date. These environmental delivery plans (EDPs) have been called cash to trash" by critics, who say they roll back decades of environmental law and are a licence to kill nature". Continue reading...

Rachel de Souza names Middlesbrough and Hounslow among hardest places in which to grow up and says some children are being radically failed'Services for children in parts of England are in a state of emergency", according to a report that identifies what it claims to be the hardest places in the country for young people to grow up in.The children's commissioner, Rachel de Souza, said in some local authorities individual service failures or systemic problems meant no child could reasonably be expected to thrive and those that do thrive do so against the odds". Continue reading...

Comedian, who is on trial at Southwark crown court, allegedly sexually assaulted woman within minute of meeting herRussell Brand had a weird maniacal" grin on his face like a clown when he grabbed a woman's breasts before dragging her into a toilet and raping her, a court has heard.The 51-year-old comedian is accused of orally raping the MTV worker as he told her: You want to do this," and: Come on, don't be a spoilsport." Continue reading...