World news | The Guardian

Poll of 2,000 people appears to underline experts' concerns of growing epidemic' of addiction to alcohol or drugsOne in four people in the UK fear that a partner, relative or friend drinks too much, while one in six worry that a loved one is taking too many drugs.The findings, from a representative survey of 2,000 adults, appear to underline what some experts say is a growing epidemic" of addiction to alcohol or drugs such as cocaine and cannabis.10% worry that they drink too much and 5% that they use drugs too often.26% worry that a partner, family member or friend drinks too much.16% are concerned about a loved one's use of illegal drugs.Families that earn more than 50,000 a year are three times more likely to contain someone with an addiction problem. Continue reading...

Footballer turned developer questions spate of flag raisings and says we're all being turned on each other'Gary Neville has revealed he removed a union flag from one of his Manchester development sites because it was being used in a negative fashion", as he urged his followers to question what it means to be patriotic.In a video posted on Friday, the day after a deadly attack at a Manchester synagogue, the former footballer turned property developer said he believed that we're all being turned on each other", attributing much of the blame for the divide to angry, middle-aged white men ... who know exactly what they're doing". Continue reading...

Exclusive: Chinese officials warned that targeting its security apparatus would negatively affect relationsChina threatened to retaliate against the UK government if ministers targeted parts of its security apparatus under foreign influence rules, the Guardian can disclose.Chinese officials warned the Foreign Office that the move would have negative consequences for relations soon after the Guardian reported it was under consideration, according to two government sources with knowledge of the discussions. Continue reading...

After more than a decade of civil war, committee members will choose transitional parliamentSyria is holding its first parliamentary elections since the fall of its longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, in a tentative step towards democratic polls that have been criticised as biased in favour of the country's interim leaders.As the battle-ravaged country moves through its post-Assad political transition after more than a decade of civil war, members of local committees are beginning the significant milestone of selecting a transitional parliament. Continue reading...

Far-right activist described as thug who represents worst of Britain' after invitation to Israel sparks outragePlans by an Israeli minister to host the British far-right activist Tommy Robinson have been condemned by Jewish bodies in the UK and others.The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council described Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, as a thug" who represented the very worst of Britain". Continue reading...

The US president's recent behavior is strange to many, from reposting a false AI video of himself to confusing comments during press conferencesTo many observers, both in the US and abroad, Donald Trump has been behaving strangely recently. Especially online.As a government shutdown loomed in the US last week, the president posted an AI video which depicted Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black House minority leader, wearing a sombrero and exaggerated moustache, with mariachi music playing in the background. Continue reading...

Survey finds 57% of respondents agreed government should impose similar sanctions on Israel as those against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine

City, which sits just 70km from Polish border, suffers one of its most serious attacks since the start of the warEarly on Sunday, the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, normally considered one of the safest in the country, suffered one of its most sustained and serious attacks since the start of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion.For five hours, Russian Shahed drones and missiles targeted the city, which is about 70km from the Polish border. Large explosions were audible from the centre, a Unesco world heritage site. Continue reading...

Victorian Liberal Sarah Henderson says Perth MP has been sidelined' for his immigration views but party's backbench is a very powerful place to be'

Billionaire suing Gambling Commission for up to 1.3bn over licence award, with payout potentially funded by the taxpayerThe media billionaire Richard Desmond will begin a bitter courtroom battle with the Gambling Commission this week that could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds in a row over the licence to run the National Lottery.Northern & Shell and The New Lottery Company (TNLC), owned by Desmond, are suing the gambling regulator for up to 1.3bn, alleging manifest errors" in the labyrinthine competition process for Britain's largest public sector contract, the lottery licence. Continue reading...

Husamettin Dogan, 44, was sentenced to nine years in prison at trial of 51 men last year where all were found guiltyGisele Pelicot, who survived almost a decade of rape involving dozens of men after she was drugged by her ex-husband, will attend court in France again on Monday after one of the men convicted of raping her faces a second trial after appealing against his verdict.Pelicot became a feminist hero after she decided to waive her right to anonymity in the 2024 trial of her former husband and 50 other men last year. Continue reading...

Shaker, wanted over his connection to deadly shootout between militants and army, had been hiding out in Palestinian refugee campA Lebanese pop star turned wanted Islamist militant handed himself over to the country's military intelligence service 12 years after going on the run.Fadel Shaker had been on the run since the bloody street clashes between Sunni Muslim militants and the Lebanese army in June 2013 in the coastal city of Sidon. He was tried in absentia and sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2020 for providing support to a terrorist group". Continue reading...

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Exclusive: poll asked voters to rank parties on how favourably they felt about them, with strong support in capital and among younger votersThe Greens are viewed more favourably than any other party in London and among younger voters, polling produced for the party has shown, with its leader, Zack Polanski, saying this showed they were on track" to supplant Labour.The YouGov poll, carried out to coincide with the Greens' ongoing annual conference in Bournemouth, asked voters in England to rank the five main parties in order of how favourably they felt about them, rather than the usual metric of which they planned to vote for. Continue reading...

Margaret Thatcher admirer beat her more moderate rival to become leader of Liberal Democratic partyJapan is poised to get its first female prime minister after Sanae Takaichi was elected as leader of the governing Liberal Democratic party (LDP) - a victory that should lead to her being installed as the country's new leader in the middle of the month.Takaichi, a rightwing politician who has voiced admiration for Margaret Thatcher in her quest to build a strong and prosperous" Japan on the international stage, beat her moderate rival, Shinjiro Koizumi, in a runoff election at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo on Saturday. Continue reading...

Police are working to identify the women and ask anyone who had seen two women appearing disoriented' in the area earlier to contact Crime Stoppers

The car magnate, who is restoring the Jewish author's former villa, has been given permission to dig out a 500-metre road leading to a garage, causing consternation in the cityFor three years the peace and quiet of Doris Ruggeberg's cosy flat on the Kapuzinerberg, a picturesque wooded hill in Salzburg, has been interrupted by the noise from the nextdoor neighbour's building site.Wolfgang Porsche, a German-Austrian automotive magnate, bought the 17th-century villa at No 5 as a second home in 2019 for about 9m (7.8m). Ever since, he has been busily renovating the property before he and his partner, Gabriele Prinzessin zu Leiningen, move in this winter. Continue reading...

Former shadow home affairs minister claims he quit because he was not given a leadership role in developing policy on immigration

Palestinian militant group accepts part of US president's plan but seeks further negotiations on many termsDonald Trump ordered Israel to immediately" stop bombing Gaza as he welcomed Hamas's partial acceptance of his ultimatum to end the nearly two-year war.Hamas has agreed to release all hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, as well as surrender governing power in the Gaza Strip, in accordance with Trump's plan. Continue reading...

The Global Movement to Gaza group have raised concerns about the conditions in which the Australians are being held in detention

Federal prosecutors had pushed for a jail term of 11 years and three months of a possible 20 after music mogul's conviction

Police arrest three more people, bringing the total to six, Justice secretary faces calls of shame on you' as crowd gathers to remember victims of terror attack

Pentagon chief says strike - fourth by US military in recent weeks - targeted boat with substantial amounts' of drugsThe United States carried out a strike against an alleged drug-trafficking boat on Friday that killed four people, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said, a day after the Trump administration told Congress it was entering a new non-international armed conflict" with cartels.The strike, which Hegseth said he directed on Donald Trump's orders, appears to be at least the fourth in recent weeks. Hegseth gave few details about the boat or the evidence that it was carrying narcotics, other than saying the US had confirmed it was carrying drugs. Continue reading...

Writing before a planned protest against Palestine Action ban, PM says activists should recognise a time of mourningThe prime minister has called for protesters to respect the grief of British Jews this week" after the Manchester synagogue attack.Ahead of a planned demonstration against the ban on Palestine Action this Saturday, Keir Starmer wrote in the Jewish Chronicle that activists should recognise this is a time of mourning. Continue reading...

Injured man was with Community Security Trust, which protects UK's Jewish community and combats antisemitism

President and his defence chief took aim at the fat generals', but some doubted there was much substance to the swagger on showThis week marked an inflection point in Donald Trump's relentless politicisation of the US armed forces, as he delivered a partisan - if scattershot - campaign speech to the very room of people he is not supposed to: the commanders of the most powerful military in the world.For those declaring a five-alarm authoritarian fire in the US, there was plenty of smoke: the anti-woke rhetoric that has become a commonplace of the political right, the threats to summarily dismiss the generals who disagree with him, the transparent pleasure at deploying the military to perform police actions in major US cities. Continue reading...

Hamas reportedly split on response to deal as US president sets Sunday deadline for militant group to replyEgypt and Qatar are working to convince Hamas to accept Donald Trump's ultimatum to end the war in Gaza, Egypt's foreign minister has said, as Trump gave a Sunday deadline to reply.Badr Abdelatty said the time had come for Hamas to disarm, and that Israel should be given no excuse to continue its offensive in Gaza, where it killed another 28 Palestinians on Friday. Continue reading...

Rapper to be sentenced on two counts that each carry maximum 10-year term - what might the judge decide?Sean Diddy" Combs is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday morning by a federal judge in New York, following his conviction earlier this year on federal prostitution-related charges.Here's a recap of his criminal case: what he was indicted for, what happened at trial, and what might happen next. Continue reading...

Liberal MP resigns as shadow home affairs minister, increasing pressure on opposition leader Sussan Ley

Attack at Heaton Park synagogue that killed two people has been declared a terrorist incidentAt 9.31am on Thursday, a member of the public rang the police saying they had witnessed a car being driven towards members of the public, and one man had been stabbed" outside Heaton Park shul, a synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester, where people had gathered to observe Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish faith. Continue reading...

Travel was disrupted for thousands on eve of national holiday in latest drone incident to hit European aviationMunich airport has reopened after drone sightings over the facility on Thursday evening forced air traffic control to suspend operations, leading to the cancellation of 17 flights and disrupting travel for nearly 3,000 passengers in the German city on the eve of a national holiday.Another 15 arriving flights were diverted to Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Vienna and Frankfurt, the airport said in a statement, marking the latest drone disruption to European aviation after sightings temporarily shut airports in Denmark and Norway last week. Continue reading...

Tributes paid to late British primatologist whose institute trained thousands of Chinese on protecting animalsJane Goodall has been remembered as a guiding light" in China, with hundreds of millions of people paying tribute online to the conservationist who died this week, aged 91.The British primatologist and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute was well known in China, and her research and findings were ubiquitous in Chinese educational materials, which listed her among women of achievement" in text books. Continue reading...

The six Australians received no government assistance in their 500km journey from the violent Al-Hawl detention camp to Lebanon

Vladimir Putin denounces seizing of the vessel as an act of piracy and warned it could provoke confrontationThe captain of an oil tanker that authorities in France have detained off the country's Atlantic coast and that President Emmanuel Macron has linked to Russia will go on trial in February over the crew's alleged refusal to cooperate, a French prosecutor has said.Macron has alleged that the tanker belongs to Russia's shadow fleet" of ageing tankers of uncertain ownership that are avoiding western sanctions over Moscow's war in Ukraine. He also did not rule out that it could have been involved in drone flights over Denmark as it was sailing last week off the coast of the Nordic country. Continue reading...

Police say phone lines have been inundated' with calls about Gus and ask public to only contact them with actual information'

State EPA and food safety authority say no evidence of insecticide was found and researcher's 2024 results were unreliable'

Exclusive: Despite being signed up to a new alert system, the South Australian emergency service was not notified during September's triple zero outage

Witnesses screamed he's got a bomb' and shoot him' before suspect was killed by armed policeWorshippers had arrived early for a special morning service at Heaton Park shul in north Manchester. It was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and rabbi Daniel Walker was leading prayers in his long white robes. By 9.31am, they were stained with blood.As people made their way to the synagogue, they saw a small black car being driven erratically before it crashed into the gates. At first, some thought the driver had suffered a heart attack. But within seconds he had jumped out of the vehicle, dressed all in black, and had started stabbing those nearby. Continue reading...

William tells interviewer Eugene Levy of hopes to do work my son is proud of' as well as sparing him press intrusionPrince William has said change is on my agenda - change for the good" when he becomes king.In one of his most personal interviews yet, the Prince of Wales set out his approach to the monarchy. Continue reading...

Greater Manchester police name Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, a British citizen, and say three people are in custody on charges of preparing acts of terrorism

Activists from Global Sumud flotilla including Greta Thunberg arrested as final boat is presumed intercepted in Palestinian watersIsrael says it has stopped a pro-Palestinian flotilla carrying aid from reaching Gaza, with its navy intercepting all but one of the vessels trying to breach the blockade.Of the 42 vessels being tracked online by the Global Sumud flotilla (GSF), 41 were listed as having been confirmed or assumed to have been stopped by Israeli forces. Continue reading...

The 10,000 award, whose judges include Mark Haddon and Megan Nolan, recognises mould-breaking' fictionSarah Hall, Charlie Porter and Yrsa Daley-Ward are among the writers shortlisted for this year's Goldsmiths prize.The 10,000 award recognises fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form". Continue reading...

Research found 35% of Jews felt unsafe in Britain and 32% reported at least one antisemitic incident in 2024Feelings of safety in the UK's Jewish community have declined sharply in the last couple of years, according to the largest survey of British Jews since 7 October 2023.The research, conducted in June and July, found 35% of Jews felt unsafe in Britain in 2025, compared with 9% in 2023 before the Hamas attacks. Continue reading...

PM calls attack in Manchester an act of antisemitism and says country will stand up to hatred behind it

Israeli PM calls for strength and unity' while foreign minister accuses UK of inaction against antisemitism

Exclusive: Organisers say protest will go ahead as planned and it is up to Met whether or not it prioritises arrestsPolice have asked organisers of a mass protest against the ban on Palestine Action to postpone it so that resources can be used to protect Jewish and Muslim communities after the terror attack at a Manchester synagogue.Defend Our Juries, which has been organising the protests in London, said it intended to go ahead with its action on Saturday and it urged the police to focus on protecting those communities fearing reprisals or follow-up terror attacks. Continue reading...

Former One Direction members to reunite for docuseries set on the road in US after death of bandmate Liam PayneFormer One Direction members Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson are set to reunite for a Netflix road trip series.According to the Hollywood Reporter, the docuseries will follow the pair as they travel across the US. The show will be directed by Nicola Marsh, who was also behind the Demi Lovato documentary Child Star. Continue reading...

Much-loved' film and TV performer played dim-witted Mickey Pearce in classic BBC sitcomPatrick Murray, the actor best known for playing Mickey Pearce in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, has died aged 68.In 2021 Murray revealed he had been diagnosed with cancer and had an operation to remove a lung tumour in its early stages. He said in 2022 that his oncologist had told him his lung cancer was cured and that the tumour in my liver was shrinking", but in April 2023 he revealed it had returned. Continue reading...

Turkey and Qatar putting pressure on group to make concessions - but condition it disarm a sticking point

Move to come if Conservatives win next election and is calculated to head off growing support for Reform UKKemi Badenoch is expected to announce a plan this weekend to leave the European convention on human rights (ECHR) if the Conservatives win the next election, as the party attempts to halt a loss of support to Reform UK.The move will be seized on by political opponents as evidence the Tories have lurched to the right - Russia and Belarus are the only two other European countries that have opted out of the ECHR - while it could lose the party support from the political centre. Continue reading...