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Exclusive: Housing secretary wants billions more to meet new-homes target but chancellor is set to limit spendingAngela Rayner and Rachel Reeves are at loggerheads over a major programme of social housebuilding, in the latest sign of cabinet tensions over this month's budget.Rayner, the housing secretary, has been pushing Reeves, the chancellor, for billions of pounds more for affordable housing, which she argues will be needed to hit Labour's target of building 1.5m new homes across five years. Continue reading...

Netanyahu says death of mastermind of 7 October attack that triggered war in Gaza marks beginning of the end'

Lucy Connolly called for mass deportations and arson attacks in expletive-ridden social media postA childminder married to a Conservative councillor has been jailed after calling for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire after the Southport attacks.Lucy Connolly, 41, received a 31-month prison sentence after calling for mass deportation now" in a social media post to her 10,000 followers on X on the day three children were killed in a knife attack in Southport. Continue reading...

Christopher Chope's comments draw widespread condemnation, with Stella Creasy saying dinosaurs walk amongst us'A veteran Conservative MP has sparked outrage after saying he would not support Kemi Badenoch to be the Tory party leader because she is preoccupied with her own children".Sir Christopher Chope told ITV News that the frontrunner in his party's leadership race would be unable to commit to the role of leader of the opposition as she has young children. Continue reading...

Latest round brings total student loan cancellation to over $175bn for nearly 5 million people as court battles continueThe Biden-Harris administration announced today an additional $4.5bn in student debt relief for over 60,000 public service workers.The latest round of relief has brought total student loan cancellation to over $175bn for nearly 5 million people since Biden took office in 2021, roughly 11% of all outstanding federal student loan debt, including 1 million public service workers holding $74bn in federal student debt. Continue reading...

Ukrainian membership would be part of five-point victory plan' to end war, president tells Brussels summitVolodymyr Zelenskyy has urged European leaders to issue an immediate invitation" to Ukraine to join Nato as he pitched his victory plan", which he said would end the war in 2025 at the latest.Addressing the EU's 27 leaders at a Brussels summit, Ukraine's president outlined his five-point plan, which urges allies to lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons on military targets inside Ukraine's occupied territories and Russia, as well as to help increase air defences. Continue reading...

Ambulance and fire services warned of similarity to Skripal poisonings, inquiry into 2018 deaths hearsPolice officers urged paramedics and firefighters to treat the second novichok incident in 2018 as a drug overdose despite warnings from the ambulance and fire services that it had similarities to the first poisoning four months earlier in Salisbury, a public inquiry has heard.The UK government believes the novichok was brought into Britain by agents tasked by Vladimir Putin to target the former spy Sergei Skripal, who had been settled in Salisbury after a spy exchange, the inquiry heard earlier this week. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned on 4 March 2018 and both survived. Continue reading...

Warning comes after three cabinet members complain to Starmer about chancellor's proposed budget cuts

Critics say plan mooted by coalition government led by Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom party is totally unfeasible'The Dutch coalition government, headed by Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom party (PVV), is considering sending Africans whose asylum requests are rejected to Uganda, in plans that opposition politicians have said are totally unfeasible".During a visit this week to the East African country, the Dutch minister for trade and development, Reinette Klever, said the cabinet was exploring the ideaand that Uganda was not averse" to it, the Dutch public broadcaster Nos reported on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Other plays to feature include a production of Sarah Kane's final work and a saga involving a British Museum artefactA new Robert Icke drama about the hunt for Raoul Moat, a revival of Sarah Kane's final play, and a saga about a Chinese request for the return of a stolen artefact from the British Museum are among the standout pieces that have been announced as part of the latest Royal Court season.The theatre's artistic director, David Byrne, said the season was internationalist" with South African (A Good House) and Palestinian writers (A Knock on the Roof) alongside more established British talent, such as Icke. Continue reading...

Equality bill will allow transgender people to have their sex changed on their birth certificates without surgery

Joshua Alliance to take company private, paying 40p in cash for each share not already owned by himself and family

System for applying for travelcards yet to be restored after cyber-attack on Transport for London's IT systemsStudents in London fear they may have to abandon their school and university courses to save money after a cyber hack on Transport for London's (TfL) IT systems left them unable to apply for discounted travelcards.TfL suspended applications for discounted travel passes when its systems were hacked in early September, compromising the details of about 5,000 Oyster card holders. It is unable to say when the system will be restored. Continue reading...

Randwick council started closing its beaches, including Coogee, on Tuesday and neighbouring Waverley council followed suit on Thursday out of precaution'

Severe thunderstorms caused by strong cold front and low pressure system to hit most of the country, with South Australia the focal point', BoM says

The 28-year-old allegedly attempted to force her to send him footage of herself performing various compromising acts', court hears

Unemployment rate in September was 4.1% - making it unlikely the Reserve Bank will cut interest rates this year

Nova university programme criticised for only having white instructors and for some of its content, such as session on does racism really exist?'A top university in Lisbon has suspended plans to launch a postgraduate programme on racism and xenophobia after the course was criticised for hiring only white instructors.The programme, offered by the faculty of law at Nova University in tandem with the government-backed Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia, was also condemned for some of its content, such as a session entitled: Does racism really exist?" Continue reading...

After expulsion of hundreds of embassy-based spies, Kremlin has had to use riskier and less conventional methodsA developing Russian campaign of arson, sabotage and even murder plots has left western intelligence agencies alarmed over the past year.The ramping up of activity has come as the Kremlin's spy apparatus recovered from the initial shock of seeing 450 agents posing as diplomats expelled from Europe in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading...

Executive Tracy Marshall tells inquiry such practice has since stopped saying it absolutely shouldn't have happened'Post Office executives changed data on the Horizon IT systems used by post office operators without their knowledge as recently as last year, the public inquiry into the scandal has heard.The inquiry was shown a letter from Calum Greenhow, the chief executive of the National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) and a post office operator for 22 years, to the Post Office raising the issue in May last year. Continue reading...

Stadtallendorf structure was not legally required to have alarms because it was classified as a building holding equipment, not a fire stationA state-of-the-art fire station in western Germany that was completed last year at a cost of tens of millions of euros has burned to the ground because it had not been fitted with a fire alarm.The town of Stadtallendorf had proudly unveiled the new structure less than a year ago, but early on Wednesday emergency services were alerted to a fire that had started in a vehicle before quickly spreading to the whole building. Continue reading...

Singer-songwriter with the Hollies and CSNY attended youth club as a boy, where he gave his first ever singing performanceGraham Nash, the singer-songwriter from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young who grew up in Salford, has donated 10,000 to the city's embattled Salford Lads Club.The youth centre, most famous from being immortalised on the sleeve for the Smiths album The Queen Is Dead, is attempting to crowdfund 250,000 after a drop in grant funding threatened its future. Continue reading...

Move comes after Foreign Office rejected calls for RAF to arrange flight following Salmond's death in North Macedonia

Dawn Sturgess, who died after thinking nerve agent was perfume, was convulsing and foaming at the mouth'A woman killed in the Salisbury novichok poisonings began foaming at the mouth and convulsing 10 or 15 minutes after unwittingly spraying the nerve agent on her wrists, an inquiry has heard.Dawn Sturgess, 44, got into a bath with all her clothes on after becoming contaminated with novichok, which had been secreted in a fake perfume bottle that her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, had given her, the inquiry into her death was told. Continue reading...

Israel says it has killed more than 50 Hamas fighters and denies it aims to remove people permanently from areaTens of thousands of civilians are still trapped in Jabalia in northern Gaza by a major Israeli offensive against Hamas militants, who have returned to the neighbourhood in recent months.The Israeli military says it has killed more than 50 fighters over the past days in airstrikes and close-quarters combat as troops try to destroy Hamas forces. Continue reading...

Race organisers apologise after posting edited images of two runners where their Asics and Puma branding was obscured

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After men's conker world champion was accused of cheating, Peckham event says he would be welcome in south-east LondonNever in its proud 60-year history has an allegation of such audacious cheating been made against a competitor in the World Conker Championships (WCC) as that levelled at 82-year-old David Jakins - King Conker" himself, no less.As a competitor since 1977, and having finally won this year's men's competition, the holder of the King Conker honorary title and the mascot" of the championships was subsequently found to have a steel conker in his pocket. Continue reading...

Kim Leadbeater, sponsor of bill, says it will include stringent' criteria and only apply to terminally ill adults

Lawyers for music mogul, 54, charged in wide-ranging sex-trafficking case, criticize onslaught of baseless allegations'Sean Diddy" Combs wants prosecutors in his sex-trafficking case to disclose the names of his accusers, Manhattan federal court documents show.Combs, 54, needs to know the identities of his accusers so as to prepare for the 5 May trial, his legal team argued in a Tuesday letter to judge Arun Subramanian. Continue reading...

Image used as visual prompt in standard and advanced English paper 1 sparks accusations of hypocrisy

2021-22 Personal Safety Survey finds 2 million women and 650,000 men have experienced stalking since the age of 15

Campaign group warns of emergency on our streets' after estimated 155 people died while rough sleeping last yearAndrew Reece was 37 and sleeping rough in Stoke-on-Trent when on 10 May 2023 he took his own life in an abandoned and roofless children's home.Reece, known locally as Pud, was one of an estimated 155 people who died in the UK last year while rough sleeping, an annual increase of 42%, according to a count by the Museum of Homelessness project.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org. Continue reading...

Source says backstage brush-by' did not include discussion of VIP protection given to star, a decision made by Scotland YardKeir Starmer met Taylor Swift at one of her London concerts days after a decision was taken to grant her a blue light" police escort, No 10 sources have confirmed.The prime minister and his family had a 10-minute meeting with the pop megastar and her mother, Andrea, backstage at Wembley on 20 August, with the conversation covering the Southport murders, which took place at a Swift-themed holiday club. Continue reading...

Chancellor's words will be interpreted as signal she will not give in to ministers over cuts she imposes in budgetRachel Reeves has told the cabinet that the UK still faces a 100bn black hole in the public finances over the next five years amid concerns that ministers are yet to grasp the full scale of the fiscal deficit ahead.At a meeting of the political cabinet, the chancellor said the 22bn gap this year - which the government has blamed on their poor economic inheritance from the Tories - would be a recurring cost each year of this parliament. Continue reading...

Comments from PM's office come amid continued attacks on Lebanon and Gaza and after reports of assurances to US

Mikhail Pichugin survived but the ordeal claimed the lives of his brother and teenage nephewA Russian man survived more than two months drifting in icy seas on an inflatable boat in an ordeal that claimed the lives of his brother and teenage nephew, officials and reports said.Mikhail Pichugin may have survived because of his 100kg (220lb) build, according to his wife. Media reports said he weighed just 50kg when found on Monday. Continue reading...

Donald Trump went off script on Monday night and abandoned the usual Q&A format of a townhall event in favour of bopping along to his campaign playlist. Chris Michael has the details Continue reading...

Foreign Office declines to penalise two Israeli ministers as ex-foreign secretary David Cameron had planned

Modi government agents alleged to have collaborated with syndicate run by mob boss Lawrence BishnoiCanadian police have accused the Indian government of working with a criminal network run by one of India's most notorious gangsters, Lawrence Bishnoi, to carry out targeted killings of dissidents in Canada.A diplomatic row broke out between India and Canada on Monday after Canadian police accused Indian diplomats of criminal" activities in the country, including extortion, intimidation, coercion and harassment, and involvement in targeted killings of Canadian citizens. Continue reading...

Ex-president swayed to songs such as YMCA and Ave Maria during Pennsylvania event after two attendees faintedOpposition outrage over Donald Trump's rabble-rousing demagoguery turned to bewilderment after the Republican nominee spent 40 minutes swaying to his favourite songs at a rally near Philadelphia, prompting Kamala Harris to express apparent concern for his mental state.Hope he's okay," Harris, the US vice-president and Democratic nominee, posted on social media, accompanying footage of a performance that many observers agreed was bizarre, even by Trump's standards. Continue reading...

Unleashed, which covers Johnson's time as mayor of London, foreign secretary and prime minister, was the bestselling book of the weekBoris Johnson's memoir, Unleashed, sold 42,528 copies in its opening week after being published on 10 October, making it the bestselling book of last week.This means Johnson has outsold David Cameron's 2019 memoir, For the Record, which sold 20,792 copies in the week it was published, though Tony Blair's memoir, A Journey, sold 92,060 copies in its opening week. Liz Truss shifted just 2,228 copies of her memoir, Ten Years to Save the West, in its first week on sale earlier this year. Continue reading...

Family-owned group closed shop on London's Bond Street in February and has eight stores led by Newcastle

As the Israeli military attacks United Nations peacekeepers, we look at the background to the violence

Coverage with UK-European provider will be in place by end of month, says island's main telecoms companyTaiwan is expected to have access to low earth orbit satellite internet service by the end of the month, a step the government says is crucial in case a Chinese attack cripples the island's communications.The forthcoming service is via a contract between Taiwan's main telecoms company, Chunghwa, and a UK-European company, Eutelsat OneWeb, signed last year, and marks a new milestone in Taiwan's efforts to address technological vulnerabilities, particularly its internet access, after attempts to get access to Elon Musk's Starlink service collapsed. Continue reading...

Exclusive: EA warns it lacks budget to tackle England's rising number of potential forever chemicals' locationsThe number of sites identified as potentially having been polluted with banned cancer-causing forever chemicals" in England is on the rise, and the Environment Agency (EA) says it does not have the budget to deal with them.A former RAF airfield in Cambridgeshire and a fire service college in the Cotswolds have joined a chemicals plant in Lancashire and a fire protection equipment supplier in North Yorkshire on the agency's list of problem sites" for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Continue reading...

Unions plan to rally members after vice chancellor Prof Genevieve Bell requests forgoing 2.5% December increase

Girl's grandmother, Caroline Sturgess, reads statement to inquiry into death of Dawn Sturgess in 2018The daughter of a woman killed in the Wiltshire novichok poisonings has told an inquiry into her death of her sadness that she never got to say goodbye to her.In a statement read to the inquiry by Dawn Sturgess's mother, Caroline Sturgess, the girl said: Me and my mum had a bond that I will never forget. The day I heard she had fallen really ill was heartbreaking to hear." Continue reading...

Men from countries deemed safe are transferred to Albania to have asylum claims processedThe first people to be intercepted at sea by the Italian navy under a controversial migration deal with Albania are on their way to the Balkan nation to have their asylum claims processed.As part of the pact signed off by Italy's far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a navy ship set off on Monday and is due to arrive at the port of Schengjin on Wednesday morning. The interior ministry confirmed on Monday night that 16 men - - 10 Bangladeshis and six Egyptians - who it said had arrived from Libya and were rescued on Sunday in international waters by the Italian coastguard were on board. Continue reading...

Roads have long been unused but destroying them sends clear message Pyongyang does not want to negotiate with Seoul, experts saySouth Korea has condemned North Korea after it destroyed roads linking the countries on Tuesday, in another blow to bilateral ties on the increasingly tense peninsula.The South Korean unification ministry, which overseas inter-Korean relations, described the North's decision to blow up roads on its side of the countries' heavily armed border as abnormal" and a violation of bilateral agreements designed to lower tensions. Continue reading...