World news | The Guardian

Pro-western president Salome Zourabichvili claims country has fallen victim to Russian special operation'Georgia's pro-western opposition has called on the country to protest on Monday against the disputed parliamentary victory of the ruling, Russia-aligned Georgian Dream (GD) party.GD retained power in Saturday's pivotal election that dealt a significant blow to the country's long-held aspirations for EU membership, amid allegations of voter intimidation and coercion. Continue reading...

Claire Reynolds, the director of Labour Women's Network, will take on task of liaison between No 10, party and MPsKeir Starmer has appointed a former aide to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as his new political director in Downing Street.The prime minister has given the senior role to Claire Reynolds, the director of Labour Women's Network, who was credited with helping get 100 new female MPs elected this summer. Continue reading...

Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt says decision to publish findings of review on Wednesday is significant concern'Britain's fiscal watchdog is to publish a detailed breakdown of the 22bn black hole" that Labour says it inherited after Rachel Reeves presents the budget on Wednesday.The Office for Budget Responsibility will release the conclusion of its review of how the forecast for departmental spending for its last economic and fiscal outlook, published for the March budget, was prepared. Continue reading...

Hamish Falconer says legislation under consideration by Knesset is neither in Israel's interest nor realistic'

Dancer's spokesperson tells BBC an ambulance was called as a precaution' and she is feeling betterThe professional dancer Amy Dowden was taken to hospital during Saturday night's Strictly Come Dancing live show after collapsing backstage.Dowden returned to the BBC talent show this year, having missed the previous series after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Continue reading...

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Diane Abbott and Clive Lewis criticise PM over reluctance to discuss reparations for slave tradeThree prominent Labour backbenchers have accused Keir Starmer of an insulting" and colonial mindset" over his reluctance to discuss reparations for the transatlantic slave trade.Ahead of a summit of the Commonwealth heads of government in Samoa last week, the prime minister rejected calls to discuss reparations with Caribbean and African nations, with No 10 insisting it was not on the agenda". Continue reading...

Researchers say skeleton retrieved from well is likely to be that of man cast headfirst' into it by besiegers of castleIn 1197, an ancient saga records that a body was flung into a well by the besiegers of Sverresborg castle outside Nidaros, now the central Norwegian city of Trondheim. More than 800 years later, scientists think they may have found him.While we cannot prove that the remains are those of the individual mentioned in the saga, the circumstantial evidence is consistent with this conclusion," the researchers said in a study published in the journal iScience. Continue reading...

PM Shigeru Ishiba's Liberal Democratic party faces losses amid voter anger over funding scandal and cost of livingJapan's ruling coalition is certain to lose its majority in parliament in Sunday's general election, according to the national broadcaster, after taking losses amid voter anger over a funding scandal and a cost of living crisis in the world's fourth-biggest economy.The outcome may force the Liberal Democratic party (LDP), which has ruled Japan almost without interruption since the mid-1950s, or the main opposition Constitutional Democratic party (CDP) into power-sharing agreements with other parties to form a government. The official result is not expected until Monday morning. Continue reading...

Readers say newspaper is failing to abide by its principles as some cancel subscriptions in disgust and disappointment'Furious Washington Post readers have accused the news organisation of caving in" to Donald Trump and failing to abide by its principles, while staff begged supporters not to cancel their subscriptions, as the media outlet struggles to cope with the fallout of its decision not to endorse Kamala Harris in the US presidential election.For the first time in more than 30 years, the Washington Post announced on Friday its editorial board would not be endorsing a candidate. Continue reading...

Andy Haldane said funding social infrastructure' and cultural institutions was crucial for communitiesNow is the time to invest, and invest big" in radical millennium-style arts and culture projects across the UK, a top economist has urged ahead of the Labour government's first budget on Wednesday.The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, needs to urgently fund projects that make lives livable" to help rebuild deprived parts of the country, said Andy Haldane, the chief executive of the Royal Society for Arts and former chief economist at the Bank of England. Continue reading...

Katie Amess criticises Home Office failures that meant the murdered MP's killer went unmonitored for yearsThe daughter of the murdered MP David Amess has criticised Home Office failures that meant her father's killer was unmonitored for years before the attack, saying the Prevent programme isn't fit for purpose".Speaking to the Sunday Times, Katie Amess condemned the fact her father's killer was known to authorities but his case was closed due to an admin error". Continue reading...

OSCE observers say election bore evidence of democratic backsliding' with reports of intimidation and coercionGeorgia's ruling party has retained power in a contested parliamentary election, in a blow to the country's long-held aspiration for EU membership and amid accusations of intimidation and coercion of voters.Georgia's pro-western opposition refused to concede defeat, accusing the ruling party of a constitutional coup" and promising to announce protests, setting the stage for a potential political crisis that could further polarise the Caucasus country. Continue reading...

Charity says findings on evaluations of children and adults suggest different approaches and are deeply worrying'Children and adults seeking an autism diagnosis in England are up to almost seven times more likely to receive one in some NHS foundation trusts than others, according to research.Freedom of information requests by the charity Autistica revealed that positive assessments in children ranged from 100% of those evaluated by one trust to just 18% in another. In adults the figures ranged from 97% to 14%. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Greens housing spokesman argues lesson for federal Labor is if PM spends next six months fighting Greens he's going to hand the keys to Peter Dutton'

Collision occurred when a container filled with corn fell off truck, causing bus carrying 25 people to overturnA cargo truck collided with a passenger bus in northern Mexico on Saturday, leaving at least 19 people dead and six injured, authorities said.Officials adjusted the death toll after initially reporting 24 deaths, citing information from first responders. Continue reading...

Country's wealthiest and most influential figure has guided shift away from the west while cultivating an air of mysteryIn the winding streets of ancient Tbilisi, one is ever under his watchful gaze. From a hilltop glass mansion, likened by critics to a Bond villain's lair, Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia's wealthiest and most influential figure, has guided the country's shift away from the west over more than a decade.With his party's latest victory in the pivotal parliamentary elections on Saturday, that trajectory appears set to continue for years to come, sparking warnings from opponents that Ivanishvili plans to dismantle Georgia's fragile three-decade experiment with democracy while blocking any viable path to EU integration. Continue reading...

The disgraced hip-hop mogul is facing scores of lawsuits, adding to his legal jeopardy as he remains in jailIn September 2000, a 13-year-old girl who hoped to attend the Video Music Awards - or at least an afterparty - started asking limousine drivers outside the event in New York City for help getting into the festivities.A driver allegedly told her that because of her age, she fit what Diddy was looking for" and as such, he could take her to a party, according to court documents. Continue reading...

Bridget Phillipson says employees will not see higher taxes as Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver first Labour budgetLabour's tax rises will not hit workers' payslips, the education secretary has promised, as the government prepares to announce one of the most significant budgets in recent history next week.Bridget Phillipson said on Sunday morning that the tax rises being planned by Rachel Reeves would not affect employees' take-home pay, as ministers struggle to explain what was meant by their manifesto pledge not to increase taxes on working people". Continue reading...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says evil committed by Zionist regime' should not be downplayed nor exaggeratedIranian military officials should decide how to respond to Friday night's Israeli attack on Iran, but the event should neither be minimised nor exaggerated, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Sunday in his first response to the attack.A debate has been set off inside Iran on whether the Israeli attack, more limited than some had predicted, warrants a military response and if the country will be seen as weak if it does nothing. Continue reading...

Forty-year-old suffers cardiac arrest after boat carrying 50 people deflates shortly after leaving FranceA 40-year-old man died on Sunday trying to cross the Channel from northern France to the UK.According to the prefecture in Calais the man was of Indian heritage and suffered a cardiac arrest after the boat he was in with about 50 other men, women and children deflated minutes after leaving the French shore. Continue reading...

Cornwall club attracts players from across UK and may be promoted but needs to fix road to campsite that funds itPerched on a hill overlooking the tip of Cornwall with the Atlantic stretching far beyond, Mousehole AFC is a world away from top-flight football.The most westerly club in the English leagues is staffed mainly by volunteers, is financed by a campsite in a field next door and serves only locally made pasties in the tea hut - although it did once host a friendly against Manchester United in 1987. Continue reading...

Experts call for consumption rooms and wider testing of substances, as number of people dying hits new highExperts in drug addiction have warned the government must take a different approach towards illegal substance use, or risk an increasing number of deaths from drug poisonings.Data published by the Office for National Statistics last week showed that the number of people dying as a result of drug poisoning had reached the highest level on record. Continue reading...

Waits of more than a year for hearings into councils' failure to meet growing needs of Send childrenParents are having to wait more than a year for tribunal hearings into inadequate provision for children with special educational needs after new cases surged by more than 50% in ayear.The National Audit Office last week highlighted the worsening crisis in the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system, with cash-strapped councils unable to meet rising need amid a lack of suitable school and college places. Continue reading...

LNP leader plans to get cracking' in majority government but critics have said locking up more children isn't the answer

Nationals MP Keith Pitt claims Coalition would have mandate if it won federal election despite opposition to nuclear power from state's incoming LNP government

The LNP leader again thanked unsuccessful candidates from both sides before declaring he would get to work quickly. This blog has now closedA look at incredibly expressive and very flirtatious' Maratus spidersAustralian Maratus spiders, which measure 3-5mm, are known as peacock spiders" because of the extravagant colourings they display during courtship rituals and combat.They're incredibly expressive and very flirtatious. The male wants to get all the attention of the female, like birds of paradise.That's not talking about net zero. That's talking about actual emissions reductions as a total.So what's the proposal? Are you intending to wipe out the cattle herd, are you going to reduce traffic by 75%? Continue reading...

The party won decisively in the regions but was rejected by the city, which was scared off by the hard-right social views of some candidates

Package includes Nasams air defence system that Taiwan says will help it in the face of China's frequent military manoeuvresChina will take countermeasures" to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the government said, lambasting a $2bn arms sale package by the United States to Taiwan.The Pentagon on Friday said the United States had approved a potential $2bn arms sale package to Taiwan, including the delivery for the first time to the island of an advanced air defence missile system battle-tested in Ukraine, including advanced surface-to-air missile systems and radar. The deal awaits approval by Congress. Continue reading...

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ALP has done well in the urban south-east but was hit hard in the regions, bringing it in line with the federal party and other state branches

Heir to the throne responds to criticism about his Homewards programme in two-part ITV documentaryPrince William has said criticism about his privileged lifestyle and many residences drives him to try to end homelessness in Britain.The heir to the throne was challenged to respond to jibes about his three homes and 135,000-acre Duchy of Cornwall estate for a two-part ITV documentary airing this week. Continue reading...

Royal visits to resume in spring subject to doctors' approval, official says as trip to Australia and Samoa concludesKing Charles will return to regular overseas trips next year after the hiatus from official foreign duties he has taken since his cancer diagnosis, a palace official said.Charles will fly abroad during the spring and autumn, the traditional periods for official overseas royal visits, provided that doctors approve the travel. Continue reading...

Shigeru Ishiba may struggle to win majority, undermining his position as Liberal Democratic party leaderCitizens of Japan will be voting in the country's tightest election in years on Sunday, with new prime minister Shigeru Ishiba and his juggernaut Liberal Democratic party (LDP) facing potentially their worst result since 2009.Opinion polls suggest the conservative LDP and its junior coalition partner may fall short of a majority, a result that could deal a knockout blow to Ishiba. Continue reading...

Group commits to unspecified measures to enforce price cap on Russian exports in response to Ukraine warFinance ministers of the G7 nations vowed on Saturday to step up efforts to prevent Russia from evading sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.We remain committed to taking further initiatives in response to oil price cap violations," the group said in a statement after a meeting in Washington. Those further steps were not spelled out in detail. Continue reading...

Iran's military suggests it would prioritise an agreement to end fighting in Gaza and Lebanon over any retaliationThe US President Joe Biden said on Saturday he hopes Israel's latest strikes on Iran will mark the end of a months-long cycle of escalation, as his administration doubles down on efforts to reach a ceasefire deal for Gaza and Lebanon. I hope this is the end," he told reporters.Waves of fighter jets and drones bombed military sites across Iran in an hours-long barrage on Saturday, the first time Israel has openly attacked its erstwhile enemy after decades of shadow warfare. Continue reading...

Failure to endorse any US presidential candidate for first time in decades undermines' paper's independence, say criticsWidespread fury and shock ripped through liberal America over the weekend after news that the Washington Post, home of the Watergate scandal expose, the paper that ran the Pentagon Papers, will not now endorse Kamala Harris for president. But angry responses were quickly replaced by two pressing questions: how did it happen, and how could readers best protest?At the centre of the storm is William Lewis, the British newspaperman who became Washington Post publisher and CEO in January. The 55-year-old north Londoner broke the decision to staff on Friday couched in terms that evoked the title's traditions. Continue reading...

Chancellor said to be planning measures including raising employer NI contributions and capital gains tax rates. We consider the likelihood of each and the potential for a rowDuring the general election campaign, Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal studies repeatedly accused both main parties of indulging in a conspiracy of silence" over their economic policies. Neither Labour nor the Tories would admit, he complained, that if they won they would have to announce huge tax rises or spending cuts to restore the public finances to anything resembling good health.On Wednesday, 118 days after Labour won the election, Rachel Reeves will prove Johnson right. In her first budget she will spell out plans to raise an eye-watering sum of about 40bn from tax rises and spending reductions to wipe the slate clean and to pump funds into public services. She will also confirm changes to debt rules that will release up to 50bn more to borrow for long-term investment in new national infrastructure. Continue reading...

Exclusive: WE to vote after leaders conclude model no longer works although its mission is as urgent as ever' Why we've made the difficult decision to back a motion to close WEThe leader and co-founders of the Women's Equality party (WE) will recommend that members vote to close it down at a special meeting called for next month.Financial challenges and a changed political and media landscape mean that, after a decade of activism, the party is no longer the most effective way to campaign for women's rights, said its leader, Mandu Reid. Continue reading...

Labour's Mike Amesbury says he felt threatened' after footage appears to show him berating man lying on roadThe MP Mike Amesbury said he will cooperate with any inquiries" police have as officers investigate reports of an alleged assault involving the Labour backbencher in Cheshire.Amesbury, 55, said an incident on Saturday had left him feeling threatened" after footage circulated online appearing to show him berating a man who was lying on the road before a bystander pushed him away. Continue reading...

Poll result could determine whether country veers towards Russia or continues path to join EUGeorgia's ruling party and the pro-western opposition both claimed victory in a pivotal parliamentary election widely seen as a make-or-break vote for the country's long-held aspiration for EuU membership.Voters in the Caucasus country of almost 4 million people on Saturday headed to the polls in an election depicted as a watershed moment that would determine whether one of the once most pro-western former Soviet states would veer towards a more authoritarian, Russia-aligned path. Continue reading...

Face-to-face military confrontation on each other's soil has now been normalisedFor years, Israel and Iran have waged a shadow war", attacking each other indirectly using proxy forces, assassinations, informants, spies and hybrid, non-military covert means. Now this undeclared, largely silent war is undisguisedly out in the open. It's become a shooting war, it's noisy, it's escalating, and there's no end in sight.This is not to say Israel's large-scale, three-wave air assault on Tehran and other targets inside Iran early on Saturday morning means the two enemies are now engaged in all-out conflict. This is not yet the full-scale, region-wide conflagration so many in the Middle East fear. That may be coming, but it's still in the future. Continue reading...

London's Neal's Yard Dairy swindled out of 950 wheels of award-winning cheddars delivered to alleged fraudsterThe celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has encouraged cheese lovers to help police catch scammers who defrauded a London dairy out of more than 300,000 worth of English and Welsh cheddar.Neal's Yard Dairy, a distributor and retailer of British artisan cheese, delivered 22 tonnes of award-winning clothbound cheddar to the alleged fraudster posing as a wholesale distributor for a large French retailer before realising it had been duped. Continue reading...

Paper has been pilloried for what some call anticipatory obedience' in preparation of a new president next yearThe Washington Post's cartoon team has taken a measure of revenge on the newspaper's decision to avoid making a formal presidential endorsement with a dark formless image clearly designed to skewer the Democracy Dies in Darkness" slogan that the outlet adopted during billionaire Jeff Bezos's ownership.The image was published hours after it was revealed that Bezos, who has owned the paper since 2012, had pulled the plug on a prepared endorsement of Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the 5 November election. Continue reading...

Local safety chief's stark advice as visitors return to Grindavik - with more activity expectedWhy do people want to see Grindavik? Gunnar Schram, the police chief for Suurnes, the region of Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula that has erupted six times since last December, laughs at the question.The allure of getting close to an active volcano is so strong that even the person tasked with ensuring people behave around the eruption site at Grindavik, which opened up to the public on Monday for the first time since the town started cracking open on 10 November last year, cannot deny its majesty. Continue reading...

Victim, in his 30s, was beaten by group who stole phone, wallet and keys after ordering him to pull into laybyA driver had his jaw and eye socket broken after being robbed when his car was pulled over by a fake police car after a motorway collision.The incident happened last Sunday evening at about 9.15pm, Thames Valley police said. Continue reading...

Prospect of drinking elderflower juice at a party is terrifying but presenter admits he fancied living a bit longer'Jeremy Clarkson has spoken of having to adapt to a new way of life after having extremely urgent" heart surgery.The former Top Gear host was recently fitted with two stents, which improve blood flow to the heart. Continue reading...

The government is facing calls to cease trading with DP World because of its partnership with Putin's northern sea routeMinisters are facing calls to review the UK's financial ties to the multinational logistics company DP World over its business deals in Russia.The business announced a 1bn expansion of the London Gateway port earlier this month, despite a row over the transport secretary, Louise Haigh, calling its ferry subsidiary, P&O Ferries, a rogue operator". Continue reading...

Government has resisted calls to say sorry for slave trade or colonialism but has done so for other historical wrongsAs leaders gathered at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in the Pacific nation of Samoa this week, they hoped that the UK government and King Charles might use the summit as an opportunity to issue an apology for Britain's colonial past and discuss reparatory justice.While their concerns were acknowledged, the UK stressed that it would not pay reparations, and while Keir Starmer called the slave trade abhorrent", the government is yet to make a formal apology. Continue reading...

Labour's policy to smash the gangs' is not yet having an impact, Home Office figures showThe number of people who have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year has exceeded the total number who arrived in the whole of 2023, according to figures published by the Home Office.As of Friday, 29,578 people had made the crossing, compared with 29,437 last year. It is unlikely that the 2022 total of 45,755 people who arrived in small boats will be exceeded by the end of December 2024. Continue reading...

Anti-racism counter-protesters and Justice for Chris Kaba campaigners also take to capital's streetsThousands of Tommy Robinson supporters have gathered in central London for a protest which the political activist will miss after he was remanded into custody by police.The Metropolitan police had put a condition on Robinson's Unite the Kingdom rally that it could not begin its procession to Parliament Square before 1pm. Continue reading...