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Rachel Reeves urged to levy double whammy' on firms' 1bn annual profits to fund measures to end smokingDoctors and health charities have urged Rachel Reeves to hit tobacco firms with a financial double whammy, including a windfall tax in the budget, to help fund Labour's drive to eradicate smoking.They are suggesting a one-off 74m surcharge and a new 700m-a-year permanent levy on the industry's obscene" profits from selling its lethal products. Continue reading...

Most of those hurt were well enough to be discharged at the scene, according to the ambulance serviceFour people have been taken to hospital after a school bus carrying 44 people overturned in a field in County Down.Pictures on social media showed children in uniform walking from the blue doubledecker bus, which had shattered windscreens. Continue reading...

UK prime minister tells parliament first anniversary of 7 October Hamas attack is a day of grief' for region

Spokesperson fails to address questions over whether Gray resigned or was sacked as chief of staff or specify her salary for her new roleSophie Linden, London's deputy mayor for policing and crime, is stepping down after eight years working with Sadiq Khan to take a job as an adviser to Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, Khan has announced. In a statement Linden claimed that policing in the capital was far more diverse, transparent and accountable" than when she started.Matt Chorley from Radio 5 Live posted this on social media yesterday to provide some context about the departure of Sue Gray. Continue reading...

Wife of Leicester City footballer Jamie Vardy lost Wagatha Christie' case in July 2022 after suing Rooney for libelRebekah Vardy has challenged the sheer magnitude" of Coleen Rooney's 1.8m legal costs from the Wagatha Christie" libel trial, which include her lawyer's stay at the Nobu Hotel and minibar bill, the high court has been told.Vardy, the wife of the Leicester City footballer Jamie Vardy, lost the high-profile case in July 2022 after she sued Rooney for libel. Continue reading...

New York Sun owner's hardline stance about Middle East prompts fears over editorial independenceConcern is mounting across the Telegraph newsroom over the threat to editorial impartiality and influence, as the New York Sun owner, Dovid Efune, is poised to enter exclusive talks to buy the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.British-born Efune regularly posts hardline views about the situation in the Middle East, sparking alarm among staff as it looks increasingly likely that he will become their new proprietor, having tabled a 550m bid. Continue reading...

Reform leader also says he and other MPs have sent letter to home secretary over Manchester airport incident

Pupil, who was 13 at time of attacks, tells Swansea court she carried weapon as she self-harmed and was bulliedA girl who stabbed two teachers and a fellow pupil in a playground has told a jury that she had taken knives into school since she was seven or eight.The girl, who was 13 at the time of the attacks, said she carried blades every day because she used them to self-harm and she was frightened of being bullied and didn't trust the system to protect her. Continue reading...

Thomas Kwan changes plea after court told how he disguised himself as nurse to poison Patrick O'Hara in NewcastleA GP has admitted trying to kill his mother's long-term partner by disguising himself as a community nurse and poisoning him with a flesh-eating toxin disguised as a Covid jab.Thomas Kwan, 53, injected his victim with the life-threatening chemical after what prosecutors described as one of the most elaborate criminal plots in recent memory." The Hong Kong-born doctor had wanted to kill Patrick O'Hara, 72, so he could inherit his mother's estate when she died, Newcastle crown court was told. Continue reading...

Nish Kankiwala to return to board in non-executive position as Jason Tarry accelerates turnaround plan

Sally Stevenson, who is on assignment with MSF, tells of appalling living conditions', with no water or sewerage system and loss of hope'

Sub-Antarctic marine park expansion welcomed but scientists say some areas important to penguins and seals missed out on sanctuary-level protection

Total declared salmon catch estimated at 5,399 fish, down from 6,952 in 2022 - and 20,000 in years up to 2017Salmon numbers in England and Wales last year were the lowest on record, figures show, as pollution and climate breakdown are killing off the endangered fish.A report from the Environment Agency and Cefas shows Atlantic salmon stocks in England and Wales have dropped to their lowest level since records began in 1997. Continue reading...

Protests have been broken up with violence and opposition politicians from Imran Khan's party arrestedPakistani authorities have unleashed a draconian crackdown on dissent, breaking up opposition protests with violence and mass arrests and banning a movement to promote the rights of the ethnic Pashtun community under terrorism laws.Hundreds of riot police fired teargas and charged with batons as supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of the incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan, gathered to protest over the weekend in the cities of Islamabad and Lahore. Continue reading...

As Israel mourns those killed one year ago today, attacks on Lebanon and Gaza continue. Plus: the aftermath of Hurricane Helene

Shasta county has made its name as a hotbed of the election-denial movement - and the snubbing of a well-respected election clerk has caused alarmThis is the first of three stories about the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election in Shasta county, a region of 180,000 people in northern California that has emerged as a center of the election-denial movement and a hotbed for far-right politics.When Shasta county had to search for a new official to oversee its elections earlier this year, there was an obvious candidate. Continue reading...

Israeli military says it struck Hezbollah intelligence and weapons storage, as rocket hits Haifa injuring at least 5 people

US and EU are supporting infrastructure projects in Angola, which has historically been closer to Russia and ChinaWhen Joe Biden travels to Angola on Sunday, it will be the first trip to an African country of his presidency and the first to the continent by a sitting US president since Barack Obama visited Kenya and Ethiopia in 2015.It is a marker of how Africa's 54 countries are increasingly courted by global powers, drawn to the continent by geopolitical shifts and an abundance of minerals needed for electric cars and other battery-powered technologies. Continue reading...

Ex-president has pledged regulatory changes and other policies to boost big donors' businesses, watchdogs sayAs Donald Trump has ramped up fundraising from mega-donors for his 2024 presidential campaign and allied Super Pacs, he has increasingly pledged regulatory changes and other policies to boost their businesses, campaign-finance watchdogs have warned.Experts say Trump's political pitches and maneuverings are a clearly transactional" chase for big checks, and pose a serious danger of major corruption in a US political system already flooded with powerful donors and lobbyists. Continue reading...

Steven James Hubbard given six years and 10 months in prison, but family cast doubt on his reported confessionA Russian court has sentenced a 72-year-old American citizen, Stephen James Hubbard, to six years and 10 months in prison after convicting him in a closed-door trial of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine.Investigators said Hubbard, a native of Michigan, was paid $1,000 (760) a month to serve in a Ukrainian territorial defence unit in the eastern city of Izyum, where he had been living since 2014. Continue reading...

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Hurricane activity is strong in Atlantic while months of below-average rainfall in South America leads to droughtHurricane Kirk is heading towards Europe. At its peak strength in the mid-Atlantic, Kirk reached category 4 status with maximum wind speeds of 145mph. As Kirk tracks north-east towards Europe, leaving the warm seas behind, it is expected to be downgraded to a category 1 hurricane by Monday.Over the next few days, Kirk will undergo extratropical transition, becoming an ex-hurricane by the time it reaches Europe's shores on Tuesday or Wednesday. Although there remains some model differences in the exact path of extratropical cyclone Kirk, it is projected to track across northern Europe with France, Belgium, the Netherlands and then northern Germany having the strongest winds and heaviest rain. Southernmost parts of the UK may experience some heavy rainfall if the system tracks ever so slightly further north. Continue reading...

John Healey says government getting on with job' and defends decision not to rush budget'

Halifax says rising pay and falling interest rates help make mortgages more affordable for some homebuyers

Body believed to be that of missing 31-year-old babysitter located at destroyed townhouse in Thorneside

Ukraine-born Mikola Bychok will become the only Australian resident in the powerful Catholic church position and the youngest cardinal overall

Trade groups warn against government's idea that those further from power projects should pay more

Labor condemns Hamas and acknowledges devastating' loss of civilian lives. Coalition offers emphatic support of Israel and chides calls for a ceasefire

Northern Thailand has been hit by severe floods over recent weeks, with Typhoon Yagi worsening the seasonal monsoon rainsTwo elephants have drowned, while power was cut and hotels were forced to evacuate guests after the Thai tourist hotspot Chiang Mai was hit by its worst flooding in decades over the weekend.Across Thailand, 20 provinces are flooded, including nine in the northern region, where 8,625 households are affected according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. Continue reading...

Technical issues meant the film, starring Dakota Johnson, was played on all screens before it was swapped for a family-friendly movie

Quarter of posts in adult psychiatry vacant, forcing hospitals to rely on expensive private coverScotland's health boards have paid up to 837 an hour for locum psychiatrists to help cope with a deepening staff shortage crisis in mental health services.They have been charged more than 130m by dozens of private health care companies to provide temporary psychiatrists over the past five years, including one firm now owned by two billionaires from Texas.Annual spending by Scotland's 14 health boards on locum psychiatrists reached nearly 35m last year, up from 20m five years ago.NHS Tayside has spent more than 30m since 2019, and NHS Fife nearly 26m.One company charged NHS Lothian nearly 350,000 for 416 hours of cover in 2019, at an average hourly cost of 837.NHS Western Isles paid 27,000 for one week of round-the-clock cover in April 2023. Continue reading...

Patients angry at getting contradictory advice, inconsistent care and facing indifference from locums, survey findsThe complaints about locum psychiatrists have a clear pattern. Patients say they routinely experience inconsistent care or get contradictory advice. Some describe an indifference that borders on box-ticking.I had 14 locums [and] they all had different views and opinions on my care," said one respondent to a survey of 469 patients by the advocacy group Vox Scotland. The last locum did not bother to call me back. That was four months ago. I've had no contact from my mental health team since then." Continue reading...

Lobby group UK Steel said country faces cliff edge' in 2026 when current protections run outThe UK steel industry has called for the government to consider further protectionist trade measures as it braces for a flood of imported steel amid a global glut driven by China.UK Steel, a lobby group, said the global industry has 543m tonnes of excess steel, 70 times more than the UK uses each year, in analysis published on Monday. It said the UK faces a cliff edge" in 2026 when current protections run out. Continue reading...

Woman remains in seclusion after being found not guilty of assault due to mental impairment in 2015

One of UK's largest ever inquests to begin at Birmingham and Solihull coroner's court with cases of 62 peopleWhen Stuart Coyne received a letter to say his wife's death, now 16 years ago, was being investigated to see if she had died unnecessarily after being operated on by the disgraced surgeon Ian Paterson, he was taken aback.It was a shock; it came out of the blue. When Catherine died, we all thought that she'd had the best treatment for the breast cancer that she had," said Coyne, 70, who lives in Solihull. Now, of course, it raises that question - would she still be here today?" Continue reading...

Bethan McKernan visits Nir Oz in southern Israel to talk to survivors about Hamas's attack on 7 October last year, and to discuss what has happened to their kibbutz and the wider region sinceAbout a quarter of kibbutz Nir Oz's population was killed or kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October last year. Proportionally, nowhere in Israel was affected more.Twelve months later, our Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan, travels down southern Israel to visit the settlement, just a few miles away from the Gaza Strip, to talk to survivors. Continue reading...

Many are deeply sceptical of the argument that only more military pressure will bring their loved ones backEli Albag had been fighting for the release of his daughter from captivity in Gaza for almost a year when he was pelted with eggs and verbally abused.The father of Liri Albag, who is held hostage by Hamas, was protesting recently outside a political event attended by Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the coastal city of Netanya. Continue reading...

The 84-year-old actor speaks about contracting the virus in 2020, saying he didn't have a pulse' and came to with six paramedics in his houseAl Pacino has revealed he almost died from Covid-19 in 2020, saying he didn't have a pulse" for several minutes.In interviews with the New York Times and People magazine published on the weekend, the 84-year-old Godfather and Scarface actor detailed his experience with the virus, which he contracted in 2020 before a vaccine was available. Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. You can see all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war: one year on here and all our coverage of the Israel-Lebanon conflict here.The death toll from the Israeli strike on the Gaza mosque has risen to 24, according to local authorities. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said 93 people were also wounded in the strikes on the mosque and the school, near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.The al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital told the Associated Press that the strike hit a mosque sheltering displaced people. Eyewitnesses told Reuters the same. However Israeli forces say the mosque was being used as a Hamas command and control centre to plan and carry out terrorist operations against the IDF forces and the State of Israel", and that it took steps to reduce the chance of harming civilians. An AP reporter counted 18 bodies at the hospital morgue, and said hospital records listed all those killed as men. Continue reading...

All crew safe after specialist dive and hydrographic vessel ran aground near the southern coast of Upolu as it was conducting a reef surveyA Royal New Zealand Navy vessel has run aground and sunk off Samoa - the first time the navy has lost a ship since the second world war - , the New Zealand Defence Force said in a statement on Sunday.Manawanui, the navy's specialist dive and hydrographic vessel, ran aground near the southern coast of Upolu on Saturday night as it was conducting a reef survey, Commodore Shane Arndell, the maritime component commander of the New Zealand Defence Force, said in a statement. All 75 crew and passengers were safe. Continue reading...

Lai Ching-te argues the reverse may be true because the Republic of China - the mantle that nationalists carried with them to Taiwan - predates the People's RepublicIt is impossible" for the People's Republic of China to become Taiwan's motherland because Taiwan has older political roots, the island's president has said.Lai Ching-te, who took office in May, is condemned by Beijing as a separatist. He rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying the island is a country called the Republic of China that traces its origins back to the 1911 revolution overthrowing the last imperial dynasty. Continue reading...

Despite hostile political discourse about migrants, the numbers are steady, at less than 1% of total populationThe number of irregular migrants living in the UK and other large European countries has not changed for years despite hostile political discourse about migrants overwhelming the continent, according to researchers.Migration researchers from 18 of the world's leading universities and research organisations including the University of Oxford have released the public database as part of the MIrreM project, which measures irregular migration. Continue reading...

Leader of north African country expected to win second term after jailing opponents and changing constitutionPolls have closed in Tunisia's presidential election as the president, Kais Saied, seeks a second term, while his most prominent critics are in prison and after his main rival was jailed suddenly last month.Observers see the election, which Saied is expected to win, as a closing chapter in Tunisia's experiment with democracy. Continue reading...

Authorities braced for potential attacks on anniversary, as possibility also grows of retaliatory airstrike on Iran

Baloch Liberation Army claims it carried out vehicle-borne attack targeting Chinese nationalsAt least one person was killed and 10 injured in an explosion near the international airport of the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Sunday night, local media reported.The nature of the blast was not immediately clear, the broadcaster Geo News cited a provincial official as saying. He said at least one foreigner had been injured and that a convoy of foreigners was close to the explosion. Continue reading...

After claims of infighting and micromanagement, chief of staff is replaced by Morgan McSweeneyKeir Starmer moved to shore up his top team after his embattled chief of staff Sue Gray quit after months of sniping and criticism that she acknowledged had undermined the new Labour government.Gray resigned less than a week before the Labour government was due to mark its first 100 days in office, after becoming embroiled in a political storm at the heart of Downing Street. Continue reading...

Starmer had to choose between his chief of staff and the architect of Labour's election victory, Morgan McSweeneyIn the days running up to the Labour party conference one of Keir Starmer's most senior aides took him aside and told him he had to get a grip of his No 10 operation after weeks of damaging headlines over tensions within his top team.The aide was not alone. A handful of other advisers and friends had made a similar plea to the prime minister. Downing Street was dysfunctional, they told him, and the whole government was at risk of being undermined. Continue reading...

Dancer and designer who wrote autobiography about strained relationship with sister died of cancer in MichiganChristopher Ciccone, a multihyphenate artist, dancer, designer and younger brother of Madonna, has died. He was 63.Ciccone died Friday in Michigan, his representative Brad Taylor told the Associated Press Sunday. He had cancer. Continue reading...

Patients will increasingly see nurses, physiotherapists or pharmacists instead of GPs, says Frontier Economics studyKeir Starmer's pledge to bring back the family doctor" is in doubt because more and more patients will not see a GP over the next 10 years, according to research.By 2034, qualified GPs in England will deliver just 70% of all appointments at surgeries, down from the 90% who did so as recently as 2015, the analysis forecasts. Continue reading...

Man in his 20s was discovered in a Milan-bound aircraft without the correct documents, say policeA man was arrested after boarding an easyJet flight without the correct documents at Manchester airport.The man, in his 20s, was discovered on an aircraft due to depart for Milan, at 7pm on Friday and was detained by Greater Manchester police officers. Continue reading...