Drill conducted after upper house voted to rescind ratification of a global nuclear test banRussia's military has conducted a simulated nuclear strike in a drill overseen by President Vladimir Putin, hours after the upper house of parliament voted to rescind the country's ratification of a global nuclear test ban.The bill to end ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, approved in the lower house last week, will now be sent to Putin for final approval. Putin has said that revoking Russia's 2000 ratification would mirror" the stance of the US, which signed but did not ratify the nuclear test ban. Continue reading...
Latest banned books list comes amid increase in type of books being banned from prison system, PEN America saysThe literary advocacy group PEN America has released a list of the most banned or restricted books in the US prison system, and the rundown comes with some unexpected entries.The list includes Amy Schumer's memoir The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, flagged by Florida officials for graphic sexual content and for being a threat to the security, order, or rehabilitative objectives; Sun Tzu's The Art of War; Barrington Barber's Anyone Can Draw: Create Sensational Artwork in Easy Steps; and Prison Ramen: Recipes and Stories from Behind Bars, which comes in as the most banned book. Continue reading...
Tensions between the two countries peaked after Hardeep Singh Nijjar was murdered in Canada earlier this yearIndia's embassy in Ottawa has announced that it will reopen visa services for Canadians, a move that could reduce tensions in a bitter dispute over the killing of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil.Relations between India and Canada plunged after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month publicly linked Indian intelligence to the killing of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, allegations New Delhi called absurd". Continue reading...
Annual UCLA report finds viewers between ages of 10 and 24 also want more shows and films about platonic connectionsLess sex and more friendship - that's the verdict of gen Z on their preferences for US media, according to a new study by the Center for Scholars and Storytellers (CSS) at UCLA.According to the center's annual Teens & Screens report, today's adolescents want less of the sex and trauma seen in shows like HBO's Euphoria and The Idol, and more storylines reflecting lives like their own", namely more platonic relationships and less of a focus on romance. Continue reading...
Survey found 8% of charity's employees had used food banks in the last year and 22% had been unable to pay rentOxfam workers are voting to strike for the first time over pay as some staff say they have been forced to use food banks and cannot afford to pay their rent.
Labour seeks to downplay the gathering as an informal one between Labour leader and MPs amid tension within the partyKeir Starmer is in high spirits as he welcomes the new MPs who each won their byelections last week.Sunak also welcomes the new MPs and to big laughs and jeers, he makes a jab at Nadine Dorries:I join him and welcoming the new members to, after all, I suspect the new members from the base may actually support me a bit more than the last one.Although, I did notice that the new member said that they will be opposing new housing in their local area while the new member for Tamworth said they would protect green spaces.But with his track record of U-turns, who knows what his housing policy will be next week. Continue reading...
Qatar has negotiated release of four hostages so far, but says an Israeli invasion could jeopardise efforts for moreThe prime minister of Qatar has said he hopes there will soon be a breakthrough in negotiations led by the Gulf state to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, although his government has warned that an Israel invasion could jeopardise those efforts.There is some progress and some breakthrough and we remain hopeful," said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani at a press conference in the Qatari capital. Continue reading...
Populist heads to Brussels days after becoming leader for fourth time with coalition governmentRobert Fico has been appointed Slovakia's prime minister for the fourth time and will attend an EU summit in Brussels this week, where the nation-first populist's fellow leaders should get an early indication of how obstructive he intends to be.President Zuzana aputova on Wednesday formally approved the new three-party coalition government led by Fico, whose party won elections last month on pledges to end military aid to Ukraine and slash immigration. Continue reading...
Brandon Lewis given approval for advisory role at LetterOne, which is 49% owned by oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr AvenThe former cabinet minister Brandon Lewis has taken a six-figure job advising a company part-owned by two sanctioned Russian oligarchs.Lewis, a former justice secretary and ex-chair of the Conservative party, was given approval to take up the position at LetterOne, which is 49% owned by Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven. Continue reading...
Ex-member says action, expected to be largest in years, will send message abuse must stop' but Scientology says protest is harassmentProtesters are planning the largest UK demonstration against Scientology for 15 years, outside what the controversial organisation is calling its greatest gathering".The Scientology leader, David Miscavige, who has been served with lawsuits in the US, including for human trafficking, which he denies, is expected to fly in for the event at the former home of the religion's late founder, L Ron Hubbard, in East Grinstead, West Sussex, from 3 to 5 November. Continue reading...
Camfed calls for six-year plan to get 6 million girls into school, warning that drop-out rate is limiting children's chancesGovernments and donors need to redouble efforts to encourage girls back to school across Africa after the cost of living crisis pushed many to spurn education for low-paid work or early marriage, a charity has warned.Camfed, which operates in five African countries, said its partnership model proved this could be achieved and called for a six-year plan to get 6 million girls into school. Continue reading...
Worldwide sales volumes dipped 4.2% as prices rose 9.5%, leading to 2% increase in sales to 9.6bnHeineken sold less beer in the UK during the summer as it raised prices by more than 7% and cool rainy weather put a dampener on barbecues and outdoor celebrations.The drop, at the company which also owns Amstel, Birra Moretti and Tiger as well as its namesake brand, reflected an 7.6% fall in the amount of beer sold across Europe, with the average price of beer sold up 12%, driven by inflation and higher sales of premium beers. Continue reading...
Leaked quote during writers' strike alluded to studios' strategy of draining strikers' resources. Actors say they won't bow to pressureHollywood actors marked 100 days on strike last weekend, and while they're feeling the financial strain of months without work, they've found renewed resolution in their fight against the studios.Raquel Bell joined her colleagues on the picket line at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles on Friday for the first time since the beginning of the strike in July. It was the first day she had been able to make it away from her second job as a caregiver in a nursing home, and come kid-free. Continue reading...
Robert Jenrick says process of revoking visas of foreign nationals who spread hate and division' has already begunThe immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, has suggested that visitors to the country will be removed from if they incite antisemitism, even if their conduct falls below the criminal standard".Jenrick said he could not get into specific cases" of visa-holders whose conduct is being reviewed, saying there was a legal process that must be followed properly", but noted some people had been seen glorifying" terror activities and praising Hamas". Continue reading...
Judges reject requirement for trans people to remove reproductive organs for state-recognised gender changeA law requiring transgender people in Japan to undergo sterilisation surgery in order to officially change their gender is unconstitutional, the country's supreme court has ruled.The decision by the top court's 15-judge grand bench was its first on the constitutionality of Japan's 2003 law requiring the removal of reproductive organs for a state-recognised gender change, a practice long criticised by international rights and medical groups. Continue reading...
In today's newsletter: As Rishi Sunak gets ready to host a global AI summit at Bletchley Park, our global technology editor explains how experts want to mitigate its risks and harness its power Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. Does artificial intelligence (AI) pose an extinction-level threat" to humankind or is it a remarkable force for good" that could develop new drugs and gene therapies for previously incurable diseases (and make big tech firms billions of dollars along the way)?Scientists, mathematicians and politicians from around the world will next week battle it out at the world's first AI summit at Bletchley Park, the Buckinghamshire country estate where Alan Turing cracked the Enigma code that helped end the second world war.Israel-Hamas war | The UN secretary general has called for an immediate ceasefire to end epic suffering" in the Gaza Strip. Antonio Guterres portrayed the 7 October atrocities by Hamas as a reaction to 56 years of suffocating occupation" - leading Israel's UN envoy, Gilad Erdan, to call on Guterres to resign immediately for justifying terrorism and murder".Europe | One person died and four were missing after a British cargo ship sank off the coast of Germany following a collision in the North Sea.Cost of living | Britons are planning to party at home and save on trips out this Christmas as the cost-of-living crisis continues to put a dampener on celebrations.US news | Lawyers for Donald Trump are raising new challenges to the federal election subversion case against him, telling a judge that the indictment should be dismissed because it violates the former president's free speech rights and represents a vindictive prosecution.Health | The average number of abortions performed each month in the US rose in the year after the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to ban the procedure, according to data from a research group backed by the Society of Family Planning. Continue reading...
China's Tsingtao beer reportedly experiences a consumer backlash in South Korea after video of a worker appearing to urinate into a beer tank goes viralRestaurants and consumers in South Korea have quickly lost their taste for Tsingtao beer, according to media reports, after a video that appeared to show a brewery worker urinating into a tank at one of the firm's plants in China went viral.The clip, which has been viewed tens of millions of times on social media since it appeared last Thursday, shows a man wearing a helmet and blue uniform clambering over the side of a high-walled container and apparently relieving himself over its contents. Continue reading...
by Mark Brown North of England correspondent on (#6FV89)
Report by all-party parliamentary group says policies must be guided by local needs, not a national template'England's most left behind" neighbourhoods will remain places where human flourishing is limited and potential squandered" without changes in government levelling up policy, an all-party group of MPs and peers has said.The neighbourhoods, where 2.4 million people live, could even see inequalities worsening over the next two decades without reform. Continue reading...
Library photographs and uploads its entire collection of manuscripts by author of The Canterbury TalesThe entire collection of Geoffrey Chaucer's works held by the British Library is being made available in digital format after the completion of a two and a half year project to upload 25,000 images of the often elaborately illustrated medieval manuscripts.In a major milestone" for the library, which holds the world's largest surviving collection of Chaucer, it is hoped the digital platform will enable new research into the 14th-century poet, courtier, soldier, diplomat, and MP who is most famous for his Middle English epic, The Canterbury Tales. Continue reading...
by Helen Livingstone (now) ; Gloria Oladipo, Joanna W on (#6FTAR)
Strike in Jenin is at least third use of Israeli air power in West Bank since 7 October; Antonio Guterres warns of risk that war may spread through region
Cleveland Dodd, 16, died in hospital a week after officers discovered him unconscious in the youth wing of Perth's Casuarina prisonWestern Australia's corrective services commissioner has been replaced after the death of an Indigenous teen who self-harmed in the youth wing at an adult prison.Mike Reynolds will make way for Brad Royce, an assistant commissioner from WA Police, Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia says. Continue reading...
The rise in nuisance influencers comes as tourism numbers in Japan near their pre-pandemic levelsA rise in the antics of nuisance influencers in Japan, who are accused of duping train ticket collectors and pretending to be homeless to get cash, has caused consternation in the country as tourism number near their pre-pandemic levels.A railway company in Japan is investigating allegations that a group of four popular foreign YouTubers had travelled long distances by train without paying. One of the suspected fare dodgers, known online as Fidias, posted a video to his 2.38 million subscribers over the weekend showing him and three others evading rail staff and blagging free food. Continue reading...
Police from Victoria and NSW raided residential properties in Bradbury, Yagoona and Campbelltown on Wednesday morning, before arresting a 22-year-old man
Secretary general's comments spark fierce row and Israeli calls for resignation as 700 deaths are reported in a day and hospitals close for want of electricity
Romance scams and ID theft among fastest growing categories with total of 1.4m fraud cases recorded thus far, says UK FinanceScammers were responsible for nearly 1.4m cases of fraud in the UK during the first half of 2023 - the equivalent of one every 12 seconds - with romance scams and ID theft among the fastest growing categories.Overall, criminals stole 580m in the first six months of the year, according to the banking trade association UK Finance, suggesting households are set to lose more than 1bn to fraudsters during 2023. Continue reading...
Brownfield site in Bexhill, East Sussex, being considered as a potential detention centre to house asylum seekersThe government paid 15.3m for a derelict piece of land last month that was sold just over a year ago for 6.3m, it has emerged.The brownfield site in Bexhill in East Sussex was previously used for Northeye prison and then for a training centre for students from the United Arab Emirates. Continue reading...
Katrin Jakobsdottir says she wants country to achieve full gender equality by 2030 as third of population attend event in capitalThe prime minister of Iceland has said she wants to achieve full gender equality in her country by 2030 as she joined an estimated 100,000 women and non-binary people in an all-day strike, the biggest protest the country has ever seen.Speaking outside her office before the start of a huge gathering in the centre of Reykjavik on Tuesday, Katrin Jakobsdottir said the world was dragging its feet on gender equality but that Iceland was doing its best to deal with huge issues" around the gender pay gap, gender-based violence and sexual harassment. Continue reading...
by Sally Weale Education correspondent on (#6FTWJ)
Inmates at HMP Frankland in County Durham, some of hardest to reach people in society', did course in a year with no internet accessInmates serving long sentences at one of the UK's most secure prisons have been allowed to study GCSE English for the first time and have outperformed many of their peers on the outside.More than three-quarters of the small cohort of prisoners who sat the exam at HMP Frankland in County Durham secured a pass at grade 4 or above - equivalent to a C - which is almost three times the success rate in further education colleges in England. Continue reading...
Party to encourage Wellingborough voters to sign petition if Commons votes to suspend Bone on WednesdayLabour is ramping up plans to force another byelection ahead of a vote on Wednesday to suspend Peter Bone from parliament for six weeks.Bone was stripped of the Conservative whip after being found by a watchdog to have bullied and harassed a member of staff and exposed his genitals near their face. Continue reading...
Health regulator says serious side-effects possibly caused by insulin in counterfeit versions of Novo Nordisk's OzempicSeveral people have been hospitalised in Austria after using suspected fake versions of Novo Nordisk's diabetes drug Ozempic, the country's health safety body has said, the first report of harm to users as a European hunt for counterfeiters widened.The patients were reported to have suffered hypoglycaemia and seizures, serious side-effects that indicate that the product contained insulin instead of Ozempic's active ingredient semaglutide, the health safety regulator Bundesamt fur Sicherheit im Gesundheitswesen (BASG) said on Monday. Continue reading...
Brandon Stewart's pregnant mother feared for his life when police pulled over their car on the way to football practicePolice officers in California pulled over a pregnant woman and her eight-year-old son at gunpoint while on the way to the boy's football practice in a case of mistaken identity, according to the woman.What Shanice Stewart initially thought would be a mundane traffic stop on 17 October in Sacramento soon became a terrifying experience, she told ABC News on Monday. Stewart and her son Brandon are African American. Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent on (#6FTNT)
Bonus cap to end on 31 October, a move condemned by unions as an insult to working people'The UK's financial regulators have formally scrapped the banker bonus cap, removing one of the key reforms introduced by the EU in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.The Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed that the cap would disappear on 31 October, nearly a year after Liz Truss's short-lived government first revealed plans to ditch the rules in a bid to attract more investment and shed EU rules post-Brexit. Continue reading...
The publisher's $10,000 Freedom of Expression prize invites teens to write about a banned book that changed their life, against a backdrop of rising censorshipPublisher Penguin Random House has launched a new writing award in the US celebrating freedom of expression in response to a rise in book bans across the country.The Freedom of Expression award invites applicants to write about one banned book that changed their life and why. The $10,000 (8,168) prize will be awarded to a high-school student planning to attend university in 2024. Continue reading...
Ex-president says decision threatens to worsen humanitarian crisis, undermine peace effort and erode global support for IsraelSome of Israel's decisions in its war against Hamas - including cutting off food and water for Gaza - could harden Palestinian attitudes for generations" and weaken international support for Israel, Barack Obama said Monday.In rare comments on an active foreign policy crisis, the ex-US president said any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs of the war could ultimately backfire". Continue reading...
Labor MP who quit the party room in August strenuously denies the assault allegationDetectives from Victoria's sex crime squad arrested and interviewed the state MP Will Fowles over a serious" assault allegation before releasing him without charge earlier this month, police have confirmed.In August, Fowles had resigned from the parliamentary Labor party over the alleged incident at the request of the then premier, Daniel Andrews. Andrews had described the allegation - which Fowles strenuously denies - as a serious assault".Sign up for Guardian Australia's free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...
Sweden says external force or tampering' broke cable to Estonia; US seeks forfeiture of Russian-owned yacht worth $300mDamage to a telecommunications cable between Sweden and Estonia this month was caused by external force or tampering", the Swedish government said.Three residents of Kherson oblast were arrested for allegedly helping Russian forces target locations for strikes in the city of Kherson, the regional prosecutor's office announced on Monday, according to the Kyiv Independent.In an intelligence update, the UK's Ministry of Defence said Russian government spending had become increasingly focused on the costs of its war on Ukraine.Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said Vladimir Putin's Russia is the most heinous evil the world has witnessed since WWII" and that the Russian president and other Russian perpetrators must face justice for their crimes".Kuleba cited Forbes as reporting that Russia has spent around $167bn (137bn) on the war between February 2022 and August 2023, with which it could have built almost 24,000 kindergartens across Russia, or more than 4,500 maternity wards, or about 17,000 schools. Instead, Russian war criminals have bombed Ukrainian kindergartens, maternity wards, schools, and hospitals, destroying almost 120,000 civilian structures in all."Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, has submitted a bill for Sweden's Nato membership to parliament for ratification, the Turkish presidency said. Turkey and Hungary are the only Nato members yet to ratify Sweden's membership request.Trade between Russia and India in the first eight months of 2023 more than doubled from the previous year, reaching a record high of almost $44bn, the Kyiv Independent cited Russian state-run media RIA Novosti as having reported.The US has sought forfeiture of a $300m superyacht, Amadea, that it says is controlled by sanctioned billionaire Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov. The yacht was seized in Fiji and is docked in San Diego. The case is before court in Manhattan. Kerimov and his family are worth $10.7bn, according to Forbes.A lioness rescued from a zoo in Ukraine could be rehomed in the UK with her cubs. BBC News reported that Aysa was pregnant when she was abandoned at a private zoo in the Donetsk region at the start of Russia's invasion. She was moved to another facility and gave birth to cubs Teddi, Emi and Santa. All four are temporarily homed at Poznan zoo in Poland. Continue reading...
World news | The Guardian