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Billy and the Epic Escape to be withdrawn worldwide after First Nations groups say fantasy novel trivialises complex and painful histories

Olympians and Paralympians attended a Buckingham Palace reception, but only the former were asked to a following event hosted by the luxury food retailerFortnum & Mason has apologised for a failure of communication" to Paralympians who were not invited to a party which Olympians attended, after the Paris medallists met the king at Buckingham Palace.Team GB and ParalympicsGB athletes were hosted at a reception at the royal residence on Thursday 7 November to celebrate Britain's success this summer. Continue reading...

The 15-year-old's body was found in bushland in Wilton early Saturday morning

The incident happened in Banstead and was attended by police, the fire brigade and the London ambulance serviceA child has died after being struck by a branch that fell from a tree in Surrey.Emergency services were called to Grove Place near the junction with Carshalton Road, Banstead, shortly after 4pm on Saturday, the Metropolitan police said. Continue reading...

About 130,000 Spaniards protest against perceived failings by Carlos Mazon's regional governmentSpaniards have taken to the streets of Valencia to demand the resignation of the regional president who led the emergency response to the recent catastrophic floods that killed more than 200 people.Floods that began on the night of 29 October have left 220 dead and nearly 80 people still missing. Continue reading...

Military regime considering move after capital punishment abolished in west African country in 2018Burkina Faso's military regime wants to reinstate the death penalty after the west African country abolished it in 2018, a government source told Agence France-Presse on Saturday.

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Former general election candidate will oversee party's administration and sit on governing executive committeeAnas Sarwar's chief of staff has been named as Scottish Labour's new general secretary.Kate Watson will be in charge of the party's administration and sit on the governing Scottish executive committee. Continue reading...

Gulf state's government is stopping mediation efforts until warring parties show a sincere willingness' to reach a dealThe Qatari government is planning to close Hamas's political office in Doha and has informed the US and Israel it will stop mediation efforts to halt the conflict in Gaza because it no longer thinks the parties are negotiating in good faith.The Gulf state has concluded that talks have become a political football, and its efforts to facilitate them were generating criticism towards it, according to a diplomatic source briefed on the situation. Continue reading...

Posters line 4km stretch of former wall in Germany's capital, while musicians perform and visitors sing alongTens of thousands of people have gathered to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall 35 years ago in Germany's capital.It was a lucky day for which we Germans are still grateful today", the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Saturday. Continue reading...

Trump's win in the state gives him 301 electoral votes, even as Democratic incumbent is re-elected to Senate

Harris still won with 68% of the city's vote, but it was still a steep drop from Biden's 53-point margin of victory in 2020Donald Trump's win was ultimately determined by voters in swing states, but a shift towards the Republican was seen across the country - even in the deeply Democratic stronghold of New York City.While Kamala Harris still won by a handy margin in New York, with 68% of the vote to Trump's 30%, that was a marked drop from Joe Biden's performance in the city in 2020. That year, Biden won by a 53-point margin in the city as he won the presidency. Continue reading...

The president-elect tapped into a fierce anti-establishment sentiment - and the Democrats didn't have enough to sayThe party was buzzing, the confidence was surging and Kenneth Stewart was riding the Trump train. He's masculine," explained Stewart, an African American man from Chicago. He brings a lot of energy. He talks about things that we can understand. He talks about building. He talks about the auto industry. He talks about a lot of stuff that people in the Rust Belt care about."Stewart was a guest at Donald Trump's election watch event in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday night and celebrated his victory over Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris. The result said much about gender, race and the new media landscape. It also represented a populist backlash against America's perceived elites. Continue reading...

Tickets to visit ruins buried by Mount Vesuvius, seen by 4 million this summer, to be capped at 20,000 a dayPompeii is to limit visitor numbers to 20,000 a day and introduce personalised tickets from next week in an effort to cope with overtourism and protect the world heritage site, officials said.This summer, a record 4 million people visited the remains of the ancient Roman city, which was buried under ash and rock after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. Continue reading...

Doctors advise queen not to attend Remembrance Day activities to ensure full recovery from seasonal illnessQueen Camilla will not attend Remembrance Day events this weekend as she recovers from a chest infection, Buckingham Palace has said.Camilla was due to attend the Royal British Legion festival of remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday evening, and to honour the war dead at the Remembrance Sunday ceremony on Whitehall. Continue reading...

Milburn set to take senior health department role and says crisis is million times worse' than when he was in officeThe NHS is drinking in the last-chance saloon" and needs to change, the former health secretary Alan Milburn has said as he prepares to take up a senior role in the Department of Health.Milburn, who brought about radical changes, such as the introduction of NHS foundation trusts, when he was a minister for Tony Blair, called for cultural change" in the health service and said big reforms will be needed to make it fit for the future". Continue reading...

Coroner's report finds Sarah McGreevy died after climbing on box on sixth floor balcony to unblock pipe repaired with tapeA woman who accidentally fell to her death from the sixth floor balcony of a Hackney council block was trying to fix a blocked drainpipe that had been repaired using heavy duty tape", a coroner has found.Sarah McGreevy, 37, died on 16 June after climbing on to a wooden box on the balcony to manually unblock the pipe, a common practice among residents of the fifth and sixth floors of the building after heavy rainfall, according to the coroner's report. Continue reading...

More than half of households cite rising living costs as reason for not heating homes, while quarter of pensioners blame loss of winter fuel paymentsMore than 1.7 million households say they will not turn on their heating this winter, according to research by comparison site Uswitch. This has risen sharply from the 972,000 who said they took this drastic step last year.The research reported that 55% of households cited rising living costs as the reason they would hold out on heating their homes, while a quarter of pensioners put it down to the loss of winter fuel payments, despite it being a potential health risk. Continue reading...

Cambridgeshire trial found workers' performance improved and staff turnover fell, while London Underground also plans to introduce four-day week optionCouncils will have the right to adopt a four-day working week after the government dropped concerns raised by the Conservatives when they were in power.For more than a year, South Cambridgeshire district council has defied Conservative opposition to its policy to introduce a four-day working week, after a controversial 15-month trial indicated in March that the performance of its workers mostly improved or remained the same, while the council simultaneously saved more than 370,000 in a year.Staff turnover fell by 39%, helping save 371,500 in a year, mostly on agency staff costs.Regular household planning applications were decided about a week and a half earlier.Approximately 15% more major planning application decisions were completed within the correct timescale.The time taken to process changes to housing benefit and council tax benefit claims fell. Continue reading...

Award given to next of kin of more than 30 public servants after campaign by fathers of murdered police officersMore than 30 former firefighters, police officers and other public servants who died in the line of duty have become the first recipients of an award in recognition of their service.The Elizabeth Emblem, named after the late queen, will be awarded to the next of kin of those who died in public service. Among those honoured are PCs Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone, who were murdered by Dale Cregan in Greater Manchester in 2012. Continue reading...

IT issues and restrictions on access to information are leaving staff unaware of crucial background detailsCoroners in England and Wales have issued 35 warnings this year over inadequate sharing of NHS patient information, with some patients dying because clinicians couldn't access important details about their needs.Problems caused by conflicting IT systems, restricted access to medical records and obstacles to sharing information outside the NHS mean staff often struggle to access details about the patients they are treating. Continue reading...

Alyse Ogletree has helped nourished hundreds of thousands of babies as a means of giving to charityAlyse Ogletree would love it if she could donate immense amounts of money to all sorts of worthy causes, but as a mother raising three young children, that's not something realistic. So the 36-year-old from Flower Mound, Texas, has found another way to fulfill her philanthropic instinct: giving away a record amount of breastmilk that officials estimate has been enough to nourish hundreds of thousands of premature babies.I have a big heart, [but] at the end of the day, I'm not made of money and I can't give away money to good causes over and over because I have a family to support for," Ogletree said in an interview recently published on Guinness World Records' website. But donating milk was a way I could give back". Continue reading...

Smoked salmon, artisan cheese and fine wine among food and drink lost by European outletsSmall food producers are increasingly being targeted by organised crime gangs and rogue industry insiders looking to exploit national and global supply chain challenges , according to food crime experts.The warning comes after several food businesses in the UK and continental Europe revealed how they had lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in scams where thieves apparently posed as legitimate buyers. Continue reading...

Police say army personnel targeted in possible suicide bombing in country's south-west and many of more than 40 injured in critical conditionAt least 24 people have been killed and more than 40 injured in a bomb blast at a railway station in Quetta in south-western Pakistan, police and other officials have said.The target was army personnel from the Infantry School", said the inspector general of police for Balochistan, Mouzzam Jah Ansari. Continue reading...

Echoes Within These Walls aims to dispel myths about the religion by telling story of temple at St Agnes PlaceThe headquarters of the Rastafarian faith in the UK is being brought back to life with an exhibition its organiser hopes will help to dispel myths about the religion, which continues to be a big influence in popular culture from music and food to fashion.Echoes Within These Walls will tell the story of the temple at St Agnes Place in south London, which was founded in 1972 after Rastafarians took control of the building. Continue reading...

MPs with experience in mental health say lack of statutory regulation leaves people vulnerable to harm

Looming catastrophe' will dwarf anything we have seen so far' in Gaza since 7 October 2023, famine review committee saysThere is a strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas" of the northern Gaza Strip, a committee of global food security experts warned on Friday, as Israel claims to be pursuing a military offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas in the area.Immediate action, within days not weeks, is required from all actors who are directly taking part in the conflict, or have influence on its conduct, to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation," the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) said in a rare alert. Continue reading...

Seoul's military says several vessels and dozens of civilian planes disrupted, a week after Pyongyang fired what it called its most powerful solid-fuel ICBM missileNorth Korea staged GPS jamming attacks on Friday and Saturday, Seoul's military said - an operation that was affecting several ships and dozens of civilian aircraft in South Korea.The jamming allegations come about a week after the North test-fired what it said was its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel ICBM missile, its first such launch since being accused of sending soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine. Continue reading...

Lewis Parkin, 23, was found with life-threatening injuries and taken to hospital after an incident at a unit complex in the CBD

BoM expects hot weather to continue across parts of Queensland, Western Australia and Northern Territory next week

Exclusive: Publisher takes responsibility for the failure to consult Indigenous groups, who say the fantasy novel trivialises complex and painful histories

Jonathan J Batt, assigned in Crystal City, Virginia, accused of three charges with 76 specifications of sexual abuseA US army major has been accused of raping or otherwise sexually assaulting at least 20 victims during a span of three years, according to the military branch's office of special trial counsel.On Thursday, the office of special trial counsel confirmed to the Army Times that it had accused Jonathan J Batt - a major assigned to the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center in Crystal City, Virginia - of three charges involving 76 specifications of sexual abuse. Continue reading...

William Hoesch, 71, is suing Columbia River fire and rescue department for $1m for injuries and medical expensesAn ambulance struck a cyclist in Oregon, brought him to a hospital for treatment - and then billed him more than $1,800, according to a lawsuit that the unwitting patient has since filed.William Hoesch, 71, was hit by the ambulance in question after its driver made a right turn, fracturing his nose and leaving him with scrapes as well as other injuries across his body. Continue reading...

Police say Anthony Nephew, 46, shot wife and son and ex-partner and their son dead in Duluth on ThursdayA Minnesota man shot and killed his wife and son, and his ex-partner and their son, before killing himself, authorities said on Friday.Duluth police have not determined a motive, but the police chief, Mike Ceynowa, said at a news conference that the shooter, named as 46-year-old Anthony Nephew, had a pattern of mental health issues".In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org Continue reading...

Police found woman's body at unit in South West Rocks, about 30km north of Kempsey, after they were called there at 8am on Friday

Yechiel Leiter, American-born rightwinger, has called for ultimate Israeli sovereignty' over West Bank territoriesBenjamin Netanyahu has appointed a hardline supporter of the war in Gaza and longtime backer of settlements in the West Bank as his ambassador to the US as Israel prepares for the incoming administration of Donald Trump.Yechiel Leiter, an American-born rightwing publicist and former government aide who immigrated to Israel four decades ago, was announced as Israel's next ambassador to Washington on Friday. His son, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, was killed in fighting in northern Gaza last year. Continue reading...

Had Biden left sooner, she noted, the party could have an open primary. Now they must live with what happened'Joe Biden's slowness in exiting the 2024 presidential election cost the Democrats dearly, the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said, days after Kamala Harris was beaten by Donald Trump.We live with what happened," Pelosi said.Trump wins the presidency - how did it happen?With Trump re-elected, this is what's at stakeAbortion ballot measure results by state Continue reading...

Complaints involve inquiries from 2008 and 2013, quality of force's response and how details leaked in later caseScotland Yard has referred two cases to the police watchdog after receiving complaints over the force's historical investigations into claims of sexual offences by Mohamed Al Fayed.The complaints involve investigations from 2008 and 2013 and regard the quality of the Metropolitan police's response and, in the latter case, how details leaked publicly. Continue reading...

Police say plans in place to deal with rise in border crossings as US president-elect pledges to remove 11m people

Plane carrying fans home lands in Israel as Amsterdam mayor condemns hit and run' attacks on visiting supportersAmsterdam police have made more than 60 arrests after what authorities called hateful antisemitic violence" against Israeli football fans.A plane carrying football supporters brought home from the Dutch capital by the Israeli government landed on Friday at Israel's Ben Gurion airport after the clashes on Thursday, which took place after a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Continue reading...

Gregor Bauld, 23, cleared of murder but admitted manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibilityA schizophrenic man who killed his mother outside their family home has been jailed for life, subject to a hospital order.Gregor Bauld, who was 22 when he killed Christine Bauld, had delusions that his mother was the leader of a war tribe, the court heard. Continue reading...

Campaign raises 5m in just a few weeks as community, local businesses and celebrities rally roundA Liverpool baby hospice has been saved after the city helped raise vital funds for a new home.Zoe's Place, a charity that cares for children with life-limiting conditions from birth to the age of five, was founded in Liverpool in 1995 by Prof Jack Scarisbrick. The name was chosen because Zoe means gift of life" in Greek. The charity needed to raise 5m in a matter of weeks to find a new building to call home, while an extra 1.4m was needed to help the hospice stay open in the meantime. Continue reading...

David Miliband, Peter Mandelson and Cathy Ashton thought to be on shortlist for diplomatic roleA decision on a new US ambassador is likely to be taken within days, with David Miliband, Peter Mandelson and Cathy Ashton all on the shortlist, the Guardian understands.Whitehall sources said Downing Street is determined to press ahead with the appointment of a new US ambassador now that Donald Trump has been confirmed as the next US president. Continue reading...

Antonia the ferret becomes first cloned animal of an endangered species to successfully produce offspring in USA cloned black-footed ferret has given birth, becoming the first-ever cloned animal of an endangered species in the US to successfully produce offspring in what officials recently hailed as a major milestone".In an announcement at the beginning of November, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said that a cloned black-footed ferret named Antonia had given birth to three kits in June after mating with a three-year-old male black-footed ferret at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) in Front Royal, Virginia. Continue reading...

Head of the Norwegian Refugee Council calls for peace process to begin as new figures reveal civilians have borne the brunt of the warNearly 70% of the people killed in the war in Gaza are women and children, according to a UN analysis of verified deaths that highlights the heavy civilian toll of the conflict.In a new report, the most detailed analysis of its kind yet, the UN human rights office said it had verified 8,119 of those killed during the first six months of the war in Gaza. Of the fatalities, 3,588 were children and 2,036 were women. The youngest victim was a one-day-old boy and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman. Continue reading...

Trump campaign said US officials warned him in September about suspected Iranian assassination plotThe US justice department is bringing criminal charges over an Iranian plot to kill President-elect Donald Trump that was thwarted by the FBI, the government said.The federal government has unsealed criminal charges in what the justice department said was a murder-for-hire plan to take out Trump before this week's presidential election, which he won decisively over his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris. Continue reading...

Budapest meeting finds consensus on need to raise growth and productivity as America first' protectionism loomsEU leaders meeting in Budapest have signed a declaration aimed at boosting the bloc's ailing competitiveness - a task given added urgency by the threat of America first" protectionist trade policies promised by the US president-elect, Donald Trump.The bloc has too many barriers to innovation and must drastically reduce red tape, especially for startups; ramp up investment; make access to capital easier; and raise productivity, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Friday. Continue reading...

Creator of the wedge cut dies after being diagnosed with terminal cancerThe hairdresser Trevor Sorbie, who was celebrated for pioneering the wedge haircut and inventing scrunch drying, has died aged 75, his company has announced.The stylist, who frequently appeared on TV and had his own line of hair products, revealed in October he had weeks to live after his bowel cancer spread to his liver. Continue reading...

Reform leader says negative media coverage means it is no surprise Trump is unpopular in UKKeir Starmer has hosted veterans and charities at Downing Street with defence secretary John Healey in the lead-up to Remembrance Day, PA Media reports. PA says:The informal reception was held after Starmer pledged 3.5m in support for veterans facing homelessness.Peter Kent, 99, the oldest veteran at the event, said he was pleased by the increase in funding and described Starmer as a good guy".State visits take a while to organise. So in the next year, I've got to tell you, I think that would be a bit of a tall order. But [Trump] was genuine in his respect and his affection for the royal family. Continue reading...