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Former transport bureaucrat Ibrahim Helmy appeared at an ICAC hearing after allegedly forming corrupt relationships with contractors and colleagues

Traditional package holiday is still the most common eventual purchase, travel industry body Abta reports

Letter says they are deeply concerned' about Manchester Academy concert after last week's synagogue attackMPs and Jewish leaders have called for the punk-rap duo Bob Vylan's forthcoming Manchester gig to be called off.The Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester (JRC) - in a letter backed by 10 MPs - has urged Manchester Academy to cancel the 5 November show. Continue reading...

Pontiff expected to appeal for peace across the Middle East and speak about the persecution of Christians in regionPope Leo's debut overseas trip will be to Turkey and Lebanon, where he is expected to make appeals for peace across the Middle East, the Vatican has announced.Leo, who was elected pontiff in May after the death of Pope Francis, will visit Turkey between 27 and 30 November and Lebanon from 30 November until 2 December. Continue reading...

Latest creative director's initial collection hits runway at space-themed Paris fashion week showClutch your pearls. Cover your ears. Talk about a big bang: under a galactic stage set, the designer Matthieu Blazy just blasted the world's most famous fashion brand through the sound barrier and into the 21st century.Backstage after his debut, Blazy quoted what Coco Chanel once said when asked why she wore the same tweed jacket day after day. She said, if I translate into English: I don't give a fuck. I like them worn.'" This is Blazy's take on the house Coco founded: Chanel, with no fucks given. Continue reading...

The group of seven held since Friday are released following Australian government representations

Printed score and keyboard manuscript by Purcell, who died in 1695, unearthed in Worcestershire and NorfolkHe was the leading English composer of the 17th century, writing masterpieces such as Dido and Aeneas and The Fairy Queen before his life was cut short in 1695, aged just 36.Now two significant discoveries of music by Henry Purcell have been made, to the excitement of musicians. Continue reading...

Tory leader says nothing wrong with making observations', after Jenrick said Handsworth was as close as I've come to a slum in this country'

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Cost of a typical home fell 794 to 298,184 in September after 0.2% monthly rise in August, says Halifax

Prime minister urges students not to protest on the second anniversary of Hamas's 7 October attacks on IsraelKeir Starmer has urged students not to protest on the second anniversary of the Hamas-led 7 October attacks on Israel, describing plans for demonstrations as un-British".Every child of Israel should be able to live alongside their Palestinian neighbours in safety and security", the prime minister said as he marked the anniversary. Continue reading...

Neville Lawrence, 83, is preparing for David Norris, now 49, to appear for first time to plead for his freedomStephen Lawrence's father says one of his son's killers should name the other members of the gang who murdered him before being considered for parole.Neville Lawrence, 83, is preparing for David Norris to appear before a Parole Board for the first time to plead for his freedom. Continue reading...

Shadow justice secretary criticised for suggesting he could tell how integrated Handsworth was based on short visitRobert Jenrick complained about visiting an area of Birmingham where he didn't see another white face" and said it was not the kind of country he wanted to live in.After highlighting the lack of white people, the shadow justice secretary said it was not about the colour of your skin or your faith" and he wanted people to live alongside each other. Continue reading...

Palestine Action Group argues ongoing killing in Gaza means Sydney march scheduled for Sunday has prerequisite seriousness and urgency'

In today's newsletter: New home secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced proposals to further curtail pro-Palestine Action protests - but what do they mean, and will they work?Good morning. In 2014, a backbench Labour MP named Shabana Mahmood lay on the floor of her local Sainsbury's in protest against the sale of products made in illegal Israeli settlements. A week later, she spoke to crowds at a Free Palestine protest in Hyde Park, of the compassion and humanity expressed for the people of Gaza ... from every race and every religion."Compare and contrast with the 2025 Shabana Mahmood, now home secretary, whose new policies could see people arrested for the very same actions. She has just announced a fresh tranche of anti-protest policies that would allow police to re-route, and potentially shut down protests which repeatedly take place in the same area because of their cumulative impact.UK news | Neighbours of the Manchester synagogue attacker reported concerns to police about him and a family member being radicalised" and attempting to preach" the Qur'an to local children, the Guardian has been told.Gaza | International activists, journalists and lawyers deported from Israel after attempting to breach the 16-year maritime blockade of Gaza as part of a humanitarian flotilla have alleged being subjected to brutal physical and verbal abuse by Israeli forces during their detention.Politics | The finances of one of Nigel Farage's key confidants are being examined by the UK's tax and revenue authorities amid questions over his income from wealth and business activities, the Guardian understands.US news | The US supreme court has declined to hear an appeal from Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell of her sex trafficking conviction. Maxwell in 2022 was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking and related crimes.France | The country's political crisis has deepened after the new prime minister dramatically resigned within hours of appointing a government. Sebastien Lecornu, the third prime minister in a year, quit hours before his first cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon. Continue reading...

Grief and confusion gripped East Java last week after foundational failures caused the Al Khoziny Islamic school to collapse during afternoon prayersIndonesian rescuers wrapped up the search on Tuesday for victims trapped under the rubble of a collapsed Islamic boarding school in the province of East Java, after retrieving more than 60 bodies, disaster authorities said.Grief and confusion gripped the small town of Sidoarjo last week after foundational failures caused the Al Khoziny school to cave in on hundreds of people, mostly teenage boys, while they were at afternoon prayers. Most escaped. Continue reading...

The Tory leader's shift to the right has left its centrist wing wondering if its tradition still has a futureIn one popular reading of the history of Tory successes, the party's last three election-winning prime ministers - John Major, David Cameron and Boris Johnson - all swept into Downing Street on unifying one-nation platforms.But for many people this year's Tory conference, marked by its hardening rhetoric on asylum seekers and growing overtures to Nigel Farage's brand of politics, feels a far cry from those broad principles. Continue reading...

Two years on, Israel has said the Holit community can go back - but memories of the horrific events are still rawShir Matias wants to move back to the Holit kibbutz but doesn't know if she will be able to bear it. Now 23, she grew up in this tiny community in Israel's farthest south-west tip, and its flower-lined paths hold some of her happiest memories.It is also the place where her parents were murdered by Hamas gunmen on 7 October 2023, and her brother Rotem was badly injured. Their mother, Shachar, used her own body to shield him from the bullets, saving his life in a last act of love. Continue reading...

Frequent and varied eating found to reduce likelihood of perceiving immigrants as cultural or economic threats'Whether it is the kedgeree of the British Raj, the Victorian penny lick" ice-creams of Manchester's Little Italy, or the battered fish brought to the UK by Sephardic Jews, international influences on the country's food are longstanding, diverse and many.Now, research has revealed that eating international food does not merely spice up the diet - but makes people more tolerant. Continue reading...

Commemorations held in kibbutzim whose members were killed or kidnapped and Tel Aviv rally will call for hostages' releaseIsraelis will gather across the country on Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of the 7 October attack, in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages during an assault on southern Israel.Unofficial commemorations will be held in the small kibbutzim of southern Israel whose members were killed or kidnapped, and a large rally will be held in Tel Aviv to call for the release of the remaining hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza. Continue reading...

More than 280 delivery workers injured in traffic collisions over past year, suffering everything from broken limbs to lacerations

Man charged as police allege a window was smashed in a rare act of violence targeted at a New Zealand politician's homeA man who allegedly used a crowbar to smash in a window at the home of New Zealand's foreign minister during a protest" has been charged, police confirmed on Tuesday.Winston Peters posted to social media on Monday evening saying a disgusting coward" had smashed a window in his Auckland home and left a sign on the door. Continue reading...

Body of Max Thomas, 60, discovered last week outside Sam's Throne campground in Ozark national forestArkansas officials shot and killed a male black bear that they believe fatally mauled a 60-year-old Missouri man last week at his campsite in the Ozark national forest, authorities have said.The body of Max Thomas of Springfield, Missouri, was discovered on Thursday several yards outside the Sam's Throne campground in north-west Arkansas, Newton county sheriff Glenn Wheeler said. Continue reading...

Ex-Conservative ministers denounce Robert Jenrick's intention to abolish body that develops court guidelinesA Conservative plan to abolish the judge-led Sentencing Council and hand its powers to the Ministry of Justice has been described as bonkers", unimplementable" and potentially dangerous" by former Tory ministers.The shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick will announce on Tuesday that the independent public body responsible for developing guidelines for judges and magistrates in England and Wales would be closed down by a future Conservative government because it was not fit for purpose". Continue reading...

Nigel Farage and right-wing commentators seek to portray capital as lawless' despite evidence to the contraryClaims that London is becoming more dangerous despite the crime figures indicating otherwise are being made because it suits some people, a senior police commander has said.The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, and right-wing commentators have increasingly sought to portray the capital as a lawless" city from which high net-worth individuals are fleeing. Continue reading...

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Misprinted wrappers pulled from Manchester goodie bags after derision on social mediaA chocolate bar given out by the Conservatives at their annual party conference misspelled the name of the country they are hoping to govern.The confectionery, in a blue wrapper, featured a slogan from the Tory party leader with an incorrect spelling of Britain. Continue reading...

Appeal trial begins for Husamettin Dogan, the only man out of 51 in French case to challenge convictionAn unemployed builder seeking to overturn his conviction for raping Gisele Pelicot when she had been drugged unconscious by her husband has told a court he never intended" to rape her.On the opening day of his appeal trial in the southern French city of Nimes, Husamettin Dogan, 44, a married father, was asked by the lead judge if he denied the charge of rape. Continue reading...

South Wales police issue public appeal for information after burglary at one of Wales's most beloved museumsRaiders have broken into one of Wales's most beloved museums and stolen gold jewellery from the bronze age.Staff at St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff said its Wales is ..." gallery was specifically targeted in the burglary, which was discovered in the early hours of Monday. Continue reading...

Wolverhampton expected to be first plant to resume output, with some workers understood to have returnedSome factory workers at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) returned to work on Monday, with the British manufacturer hoping to start making a limited number of cars as soon as this week after a crippling cyber-attack.The first factory expected to restart production is at Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, where JLR makes engines. Some workers are understood to have returned to the site on Monday. Continue reading...

Police investigating blaze in Peacehaven say 46-year-old is suspected of arson with intent to endanger lifeA man has been arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life after a fire at a mosque in East Sussex.Sussex police said a 46-year-old man was in custody after an arrest was made on Monday. Continue reading...

Half of Tory members also want Kemi Badenoch to be replaced as Conservative leader. This live blog is closedMel Stride, the shadow chancellor, was doing an interview round for the Conservatives this morning, and Miatta Fahnbulleh, the faith and communities minister, was on the air on behalf of the government. They were both asked about the latest development in the flag phenomenon - the former footballer turned property developer Gary Neville saying that he took down a union flag flying at one of his building sites because he felt it was being used in a negative fashion".Asked if Neville (a Labour supporter) had a point, Fahnbulleh told ITV's Good Morning Britain:I think he's really right, that there are people who are trying to divide us at the moment ...I spent a lot of time going around our communities, talking to people. People are ground down. We've had a decade-and-a-half in which living standards haven't budged and people have seen their communities held down. And you will get people trying to stoke division, trying to blame others, trying to stoke tension.I think people that put up flags, the vast majority of people that do, do so for perfectly reasonable patriotic reasons. And I think reclaiming our flag as a flag of unity and decency and tolerance, which is the way most people see our flag, is a very positive thing.So I'm afraid I really cannot agree with the comments that he's made. Continue reading...

Julia Wandelt described as a conspiracy theorist who had previously pretended to be two other missing childrenA woman claiming to be Madeleine McCann broke down in the dock as a Leicester jury was told she was a conspiracy theorist who could not be the missing child.Julia Wandelt, 24, is accused of stalking Kate and Gerry McCann, the parents of Madeleine who was three when she disappeared on holiday in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz in 2007. Continue reading...

Some of those held say guns were pointed at them, they were threatened with dogs and deprived of sleepInternational activists, journalists and lawyers deported from Israel after attempting to breach the 16-year maritime blockade of Gaza as part of a humanitarian flotilla have alleged being subjected to brutal physical and verbal abuse by Israeli forces during their detention.The alleged abuses included sleep and medication deprivation, beatings, having automatic rifles pointed at their heads, dogs set upon them, having to sleep on the floor, being subjected to insults and being made to watch footage of the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023. Continue reading...

Presidents spoke on a video call as expert speculates that Haiti could be an area where the two leaders can cooperateBrazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has urged Donald Trump to scrap tariffs on his country's imports and sanctions against its officials, as the two men held what the Brazilian presidency called a friendly" video call, swapping phone numbers after months of friction.Ties between the US and Brazil have nosedived as a result of Trump's campaign to pressure Brazilian authorities into abandoning the coup trial of his far-right ally, Jair Bolsonaro. Continue reading...

Departure after less than a month follows fierce criticism of Macron's new cabinet. This live blog is closedJust as most across France were starting their workday, news broke that the country's prime minister, Sebastien Lecornu, had resigned.The swift, unexpected resignation came after allies and foes alike threatened to topple the new government, leaving Lecornu blaming the egos" of opposition politicians.Lecornu was President Emmanuel Macron's fifth prime minister in two years. He stayed in the job for only 27 days and his government lasted 14 hours.The resignation deepens the political crisis that has gripped France for more than a year, after Macron called legislative elections in the summer of 2024 which ended in a hung parliament.Macron's opponents immediately seized on the moment. The far-right National Rally called on him to either call for new snap elections or resign while across the spectrum on the left, France Unbowed also called for Macron's departure. Continue reading...

Jermaine Baker, from Tottenham, killed during operation to stop plot to spring gang leader from prison in 2015A firearms officer used excessive force when he shot dead an unarmed 28-year-old man involved in a foiled attempt to spring a gang leader from prison, a police misconduct hearing has been told.The officer, known only as W80, killed Jermaine Baker, from Tottenham, north London, during an operation to interrupt a criminal plot to snatch Izzet Eren, the head of the Tottenham Turks organised crime group, from a van heading towards Wood Green crown court in December 2015. Continue reading...

Co-written with Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein, The Mushroom Tapes is inspired by their experience attending the headline-grabbing trial earlier this yearHelen Garner, one of Australia's most acclaimed authors, is set to publish a new book in November about the Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial.The book follows the story of Patterson, an Australian woman convicted in July of murdering three of her former in-laws and attempting to murder a fourth by serving them a beef wellington contaminated with death cap mushrooms in 2023. The case, which played out in an Australian court earlier this year, attracted global attention. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Royal College of Nursing says plan to tighten rules for foreign workers is pandering' to Reform UKThe NHS and social care would cease to function under the government's new rules to be imposed on foreign staff, nursing leaders have said, as hundreds of medics condemned the policy as divisive and xenophobic".In the most explicit attack yet on Labour's proposed restrictions on overseas workers, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) described the plan as ignorant" and pandering" to Nigel Farage's Reform UK. Continue reading...

Melbourne food stylist Caroline Velik wins speciality dish category and places second in Golden Spurtle food fight behind Norwegian first-timerOnly an Australian would bring a toastie to a porridge fight - and walk away with a trophy.As other competitors stirred oats and debated salt ratios, the Melbourne food stylist Caroline Velik took out one of the top awards at this year's World Porridge Making Championships in Carrbridge, Scotland. Continue reading...

The spotlight again falls on opposition turmoil as MPs return to Canberra, while Labor avoids scrutiny

Election becomes unpredictable two-horse contest after political novice quits over debt revelationsOne of the three main candidates in Ireland's presidential election has quit the race in a bombshell announcement that has upended the contest.Fianna Fail's Jim Gavin withdrew on Sunday night after revelations about an unpaid debt to a former tenant, turning the election into an unpredictable two-horse race between a centre-right former government minister and an independent leftwing member of parliament. Continue reading...

Scrutiny on the nine justices is about to reach a new level of intensity as Trump aggressively asserts executive powerContext may be everything in the precedent-shattering era of the current US supreme court.For several years - since conservatives, gained a six-three majority on the bench thanks to Donald Trump's nominations during his first presidency - the court has been delivering transformative rulings that have reverberated across the social and political landscape. Continue reading...

Experts say checklist devised in 1970s that helped convict Robert Roberson pushing juries into harsher punishmentsRobert Roberson faces execution in Texas on 16 October for the 2002 murder of his young daughter Nikki Curtis. For years, a growing pool of supporters - from the lead detective in his case to Dr Phil - have argued Roberson is innocent. They say doctors and prosecutors blamed him for Nikki's death through a faulty diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.But that was not the only diagnosis that sent Roberson to death row. After he was found guilty, a psychologist named Thomas Allen interviewed him using the Psychopathy Checklist-revised. Sometimes called the psychopath test", it measures traits such as a person's impulsivity and lack of remorse. Allen gave Roberson a high score, told the jury he was a psychopath, and compared him to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein. The implication was that Roberson would continue to be dangerous, although Allen said the risk was much smaller if he were in prison.This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook. Continue reading...

Sebastien Lecornu quits after Emmanuel Macron unveiled largely unchanged cabinet lineupFrance's political crisis has deepened after the new prime minister dramatically resigned within hours of appointing a new government.Sebastien Lecornu was the third French prime minister in a year, as the country continued to lurch from one political crisis to another. He quit hours before his first cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon. Macron accepted Lecornu's resignation on Monday morning. Continue reading...

At least 200 people still stranded after unseasonally heavy snowfall during china's Golden Week holidayTrekkers have described facing extreme" conditions after an unseasonable snowstorm during one of China's busiest holiday weekends stranded hundreds of people on Mount Everest, sparking a massive rescue effort.Chinese authorities said about 350 people had made their way down but at least 200 remained stranded at the Everest Scenic Area, to the east of the mountain, on the Tibetan side of the border. Continue reading...

CIPS survey shows cyber threats have risen up the list of concerns for procurement managersAlmost a third of bosses have reported an increase in cyber-attacks on their supply chains over the past six months, as the fallout from devastating hacks on corporate stalwarts including Jaguar Land Rover highlighted a growing threat to businesses.Cyber threats have risen up the list of concerns for procurement managers at hundreds of companies worldwide across industries including manufacturing, energy and technology, according to a survey conducted in September by industry body the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (Cips). Continue reading...

This blog is now closed.An Australian has won an award at this year's Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship.Caroline Velik was named Speciality Dish winner for her porridge jaffles - a yoghurt flatbread filled with rum bananas, made with her mother's recipe, which included Bundaberg banana toffee rum liqueur, bananas, oatmeal and wattle seeds, tossed in Davidson plum sugar. Continue reading...

Victoria's director of public prosecutions seeking longer prison sentence for mushroom murderer

Partial refund to be issued after several errors were found in a report into a department's compliance framework