World news | The Guardian

Exclusive: Richard Colbeck urged counterparts to seek document used to clear firm's partners of wrongdoing

Joshua Hunt, 32, receives sexual risk order after police linked him to 25 Somerset gimp' incidentsA man has been banned for five years from wearing a mask and dressing in an all-black suit in public at night and crawling, wriggling or writhing on the ground" after police linked him to 25 incidents committed by the so-called Somerset gimp".Joshua Hunt, 32, has been given a sexual risk order after police argued there was a sexual motivation to the incidents.Wearing any type of mask or face covering, including improvised mask or face coverings that cover all or part of the face, in any public place, including whilst in a vehicle in a public place, unless officially required for medical purposes or by law.Being in possession of any type of mask or face covering, including improvised masks or face coverings that cover all or part of the face, in a public place, including whilst in a vehicle in a public place, between the hours of 9pm and 6am unless officially required for medical purposes or by law.Wearing or being in possession of black all-in-one garments or any combination of full-length black-coloured top and black-coloured bottom clothing which has the appearance of an all-in-one garment, in a public place, including in a vehicle in a public place between the hours of 9pm and 6am.Crawling, wriggling or writhing on the ground in a public place whilst wearing a full-body covering, clothing that appears like a full-body covering and/or mask/full-face covering. Continue reading...

Security guard attacked by Matthew White in 2015 said he told him there had been no consequences for killing Stephen', BBC reportsA man unmasked earlier this year as the sixth suspect in the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence reportedly claimed he had killed before as he attempted to stab a black security guard, according to a report.Lawrence was murdered by a group of five or six racist attackers in south-east London in 1993, but only two of his killers have faced justice - Gary Dobson and David Norris were jailed for life in 2012. Continue reading...

Ukraine claims to have shot down 24 drones but in Kharkiv, Odesa, Kherson, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv are struck; Russia dismisses latest US sanctions as in vain'

Academics express unease over government ambition to replace once-a-decade snapshot with other sources of data'The first official census in Britain was conducted at a time of great national insecurity. Amid failing harvests and a war with France, MPs were concerned that the country could run out of bread to feed its population. The problem was, nobody knew how big that population actually was.And so, on 10 March 1801, the first census of England and Wales was held (it counted 8.9 million people, roughly equivalent to the current population of London). Census questions may have changed somewhat in the interim - no longer are respondents asked if they are a lunatic, imbecile or idiot", as was the case in 1871 - but every 10 years since, with only one wartime interruption in 1941, a similar survey has been conducted to take a snapshot of the nation. Continue reading...

This blog is closed.

Critics say government shies away from standing up to Netanyahu in tilt to Indo-Pacific and pursuit of Middle East trade deals

Concern around fake Taylor Swift ticket scams comes as bank reveals $220,000 worth of transactions abandoned daily

Electric vehicle travel to be made easier with 1,500 NSW government-funded charging plugs in regional tourism areas

Patterson, 49, was charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder after family lunch in rural Australian town of Leongatha

Teacher now travelling by boat to educate children at two different school sites on either side of impasseBusinesses in a remote peninsula of Scotland are fighting to survive and children are unable to attend their local school nearly a month after record-breaking rainfall caused a severe landslip, which cut off a vital road link to the wider peninsula.The Craignish peninsula in Argyll was battered by heavy rain in early October, causing a landslip on the A816 near Ardfern which left 6,000 tonnes of debris covering the road and rendered it impassable. Continue reading...

Fortunately this horrible dilemma never crystallised,' former NHS England head Simon Stevens tells inquiryFormer health secretary Matt Hancock told officials that he - rather than the medical profession - should ultimately decide who should live or die" if the NHS was overwhelmed during the pandemic, the Covid inquiry heard.Fortunately this horrible dilemma never crystalised," the former head of the NHS, Lord Simon Stevens, said in his evidence to the inquiry on Thursday. Continue reading...

NSW police have issued criminal infringement notices after footage emerged of men attempting to take down posters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas

Suella Braverman signs migration and security agreement' with Austrian counterpart in move to work more closely togetherAustria is seeking to adopt a Rwanda-style deal to deport asylum seekers to a third country, having agreed a deal to work with the UK on migration.Suella Braverman signed a migration and security agreement" with her Austrian counterpart, Gerhard Karner, in which the two countries agreed to work more closely together. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, see all our Ukraine coverage hereIn response to the evacuations of Ukrainian civilians from Kupiansk were announced, Igor Bodnia, the Internation Rescue Committee's field manager in Kharkiv, said:The situation in Kupiansk is dire, and the impact on children is particularly devastating. Many of them have seen violence and displacement more than once, and they are in urgent need of protection and support. The IRC is working in a reception hub and dormitories in Kharkiv, focusing on providing primary health care to evacuated families, as well as psychological first aid to children to help them cope with the trauma they have experienced."Ukraine's commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Gen Valery Zaluzhny, has said that the war in Ukraine in at a stalemate", warning that there is likely to be no deep and beautiful breakthrough" soon in the counteroffensive against Russia.Ukraine's army should have been able to push back at a pace of 18 miles a day as it breached Russian defensive lines, the general said.The UK's Ministry of Defence (MOD) has issued its latest defence intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine as of today, that Russian air defence has suffered significant loses.Russia is preparing to attack Ukraine's critical infrastructure once the temperatures drop, according to Ukraine's national security and defence council secretary, Oleksiy Danilov. Continue reading...

Abdel Hammad took 10 hours to get to Egypt and will not receive support from UK Foreign Office to fly home

Torrential rain and 200km/h winds force schools to close and airlines and train companies to halt servicesAt least seven people were killed and dozens injured as Storm Ciaran battered north-west Europe with torrential rain and winds of up to 200km/h (124mph), damaging homes and forcing schools to close and airlines and train companies to halt services.A truck driver was killed by a falling tree in the Aisne departement of northern France, authorities said on Thursday, while more than 1.2 million people lost their electricity supply including about half the population of Brittany. Continue reading...

Lt Gen Herzi Halevi also says Israeli troops are operating inside city fighting in close quarters'

Met Office issues yellow warning for much of southern England, parts of north-east England, eastern Scotland and Wales

Casey Bloys responds to report alleging he used employees to respond to critics under fake accounts, calling it a dumb idea'The HBO CEO and chairman, Casey Bloys, has apologised for tasking employees with creating fake Twitter accounts to attack TV critics.Bloys was responding to a bombshell Rolling Stone report that referenced alleged text messages between himself and Kathleen McCaffrey, HBO's senior vice-president of drama programming. In six conversations, the pair discussed a secret army" that could respond to TV critics who gave HBO shows a negative review. Continue reading...

Lt Col Salman Habaka was among first Israeli troops to arrive in Israel's south after attack on 7 OctoberAn Israeli tank commander who was hailed as a hero for his actions during Hamas's attack on Be'eri kibbutz, the scene of one of the worst massacres on 7 October, has been killed while commanding his tank battalion in northern Gaza.Lt Col Salman Habaka, 33, a member of Israel's Druze minority, had rushed to Be'eri with his troops when news of the Hamas attack broke on the morning of 7 October, bringing two tanks to the kibbutz, which engaged members of the militant Islamist group in houses where they were hiding. Continue reading...

Company prepares to cut jobs from low-carbon division and focus on high-profit oil projects

Rights groups repeat calls for apology while President William Ruto says much remains to be done to achieve full reparations'King Charles's expression of greatest sorrow and deepest regret" over colonial atrocities committed by British forces in Kenya has been criticised as a miss" in the east African country.Reactions to the king's statement were mixed, with the president, William Ruto, diplomatically welcoming Charles's courage and readiness to shed light on uncomfortable truths that reside in the darker regions of our shared experience", but calling Britain's colonial suppression of Kenya's freedom movement monstrous in its cruelty". Continue reading...

Prosecutors have told court charges against Queensland businessman and his Coolum resort have been on foot for a very long time'

Proposed changes such as plain packaging for vapes and individual cigarette warnings come under microscope at Senate hearing

Judge accuses local authority of a lackadaisical' attitude to the 16-year-old's care after regulated providers refused to give him a placeA teenage boy who has been accused of multiple rapes was housed in Airbnbs by a local authority after regulated accommodation providers said it would be too risky for them to house him.Airbnbs and other temporary accommodation have been deployed because no secure placement can be found anywhere in England that is prepared to accommodate the child, who self-harms, makes weapons, assaults staff members, damages property and has been taken to hospital after expressing suicidal thoughts. He has been arrested on numerous occasions. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: More than 30 councillors have resigned from the party in protest against Starmer's position - here's why, in their own words Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. Today, we're going to Bradford to meet city councillor and bus driver Taj Salam. He is one more than 30 Labour councillors who have resigned from the party in anger at Sir Keir Starmer's refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.They are part of a growing rebellion within the party over Starmer's refusal to publicly advocate for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Instead, he has called for humanitarian pauses" to allow the urgent alleviation of Palestinian suffering".Israel-Hamas war | Joe Biden has said there should be a pause" in the fighting in Gaza to enable the release of hostages, as Hamas said nearly 200 people had been killed in two days of Israeli airstrikes on the enclave's Jabalia refugee camp.AI | The UK, US, EU and China have all agreed that artificial intelligence poses a potentially catastrophic risk to humanity, in the first international declaration to deal with the fast-emerging technology.UK news | Northumbria police have said that two more people have been arrested over the deliberate felling of the Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland.Media | Noel Clarke's legal action against the Guardian has suffered a setback after a high court judge rejected his lawyers' arguments on the meaning of eight articles that he says unfairly defamed him.Covid-19 | The pandemic has caused sustained harm to the brain health of people aged 50 or over, rapidly speeding up cognitive decline regardless of whether or not they caught Covid, researchers have discovered. Continue reading...

Mahsa Yazdani convicted of blasphemy and insulting supreme leader' as Iran regime targets families of those killed in protestsA mother in Iran, whose son was reportedly killed after being shot repeatedly at close range by security forces, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison by an Iranian court after she demanded justice for her child on social media.Mahsa Yazdani, whose 20-year-old son Mohammad Javad Zahedi was killed at an anti-regime protest in September 2022, was convicted on charges of blasphemy, incitement, insulting the supreme leader, and spreading anti-regime propaganda, according to human rights groups and family members. They say she will serve the first five years with no chance of parole. Continue reading...

Staff who refuse can be fired according to the supermarket chain's policy, as workers in Victoria prepare to strike on Friday

US president says pause will allow time to rescue hostages, amid fresh Israeli airstrikes on enclave's Jabalia refugee camp

Shona Reid says gaps in information' in Kurlana Tapa youth justice centre's records are hurting transparency and oversight

Hamas says hundreds injured after refugee camp strikes; the US president responded to an anti-war protestor saying he supports a humanitarian pause'

Talks expected on Monday would be first since Obama administration and follow visit to Washington by Wang Yi, Chinese foreign ministerChina and the United States will reportedly discuss nuclear arms control next week, the first such talks since the Obama administration.The talks would be led on Monday by Mallory Stewart, a senior state department official, and Sun Xiaobo, the head of the arms control department at China's foreign ministry, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Former Australian prime minister tells right-wing conference that immigrants should adopt the values and practices' of their new country

A 36 year-old man was charged with trafficking, proceeds of crime and firearms offences after raid at Botanic Ridge house in Melbourne

Australian government to grant federal circuit court and family court judges the same protections as other commonwealth judges under new legislationThe federal government is preparing to introduce reforms granting greater protections to inferior court judges after a landmark case in which a wrongfully imprisoned man successfully sued Salvatore Vasta.Vasta, a judge in the federal circuit court, was successfully sued this year by a man who he falsely imprisoned during a routine property dispute after a series of serious and fundamental errors" and gross and obvious irregularity of procedure". Continue reading...

Prof Ben Saul cautions that exceeding the limits of international law only breeds extremism and discontent, and is no recipe for peace

West Midlands police investigate after animals released in two restaurants by people shouting slogans such as boycott Israel'A man has been arrested after boxes of live rodents were released at McDonald's restaurants in Birmingham, apparently as part of pro-Palestine protests.Police said they were investigating three separate incidents in the region where live rodents were thrown into the fast food venues, and were also seeking a second man, Billal Hussain, 30. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Craig Mokhiber, retiring UN official who criticised the body over its failure to protect civilians in Gaza, had been accused of bias in his social media

Harassment and bullying flourished within the elite display team, enabled by a sense that the rules don't applyIt was intended to be a hard-hitting review into allegations of sexism, harassment and bullying in the elite Red Arrows display team. The inquiry was concerned that the squadron was not a safe environment" for women and said it was highly likely" women would be subject to unlawful harassment.The report makes a generalised list, ranging from unwanted physical contact" to unwanted texts of a sexual nature; unsought invitations to engage in sexual activity to a broader attitude of male sexual entitlement". But what comes shortly after is a classic case of overzealous Ministry of Defence secrecy. Continue reading...

Number of planning applications received and decided increases by 25% as City workforce growsDemand for office space continues to rise in the City of London despite the shift to hybrid working, with a mock-up revealing how the capital's financial district will look in 2030 with 11 extra towers due to be built.The image shows all of the big developments that are under construction, have been approved or resolved to be approved over the past year, a period in which the number of planning applications received and decided rose 25% compared with the previous 12 months. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Group accuses programme of encouraging thought policing' and being incompatible with international human rightsAmnesty International has called for the abolition of the government's counter-extremism strategy Prevent, accusing it of severe human rights abuses and of encouraging a culture of thought policing".A report by the group said Prevent's legal duty on public sector workers, such as in schools and health, to report their suspicions was fundamentally incompatible" with international human rights obligations. Continue reading...

Sudden failure of voluntary group that hosted launch of Theresa May's anti-loneliness strategy was complete shock to staffA charity that hosted the launch of Theresa May's anti-loneliness strategy has gone bust, citing insurmountable" financial problems and warned that more voluntary organisations are set to follow it into insolvency in the coming months.The Cares Family, a group of charities that ran community projects tackling social isolation in London and the north-west of England, closed suddenly on Tuesday. It blamed the cost of living crisis, funding issues and a slew of other factors". Continue reading...

Decision on scheme run by British Business Bank pushes losses on to banks if borrowers fail to repayThe UK government has removed state guarantees from almost 1bn in Covid-19 emergency loans, pushing potential losses on to banks if borrowers fail to repay them.The taxpayer-owned British Business Bank (BBB), which runs the loan schemes, removed state guarantees from 10,786 loans worth a combined 979m up to 11 October, according to data released under freedom of information (FoI) laws. Continue reading...

This live blog has now closed, you can read more on this story hereGert Jan Koopman, the head of the European Commission's directorate-general for neighbourhood and enlargement negotiations, has said Bosnia and Herzegovina's progress must continue" and in particular" on rule of law.The country should seize the momentum around enlargement & focus its efforts on the outstanding reforms", he added. Continue reading...

Marta Kauffman and David Crane recall last conversations with sitcom actor who died on SaturdayThe creators of Friends have recalled their last conversations with Matthew Perry, saying he was in a really good place" shortly before he died.In a joint interview on CBS's Today show, Marta Kauffman and David Crane also discussed their shock at the news of Perry's death at the age of 54 on Saturday. Continue reading...

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vows to press on with ground offensive despite rising death toll

Workers had been braced for up to 3,000 job cuts and confirmation of the closure of two blast furnacesTata Steel has pulled an announcement that had been expected to detail steep job cuts at its Port Talbot steelworks, in a dramatic last-minute reprieve that has left workers in the dark over the plant's future.Workers had been braced for confirmation of the closures of the two blast furnaces after a board meeting on Wednesday. However, Tata communicated after the board meeting that it would not be releasing a statement on its plans. Continue reading...

Northumbria police arrest two men in relation to famous tree cut down in SeptemberTwo more people have been arrested over the deliberate felling of the world-famous Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland.Northumbria police said two men, both aged in their 30s, were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Attendance in UAE confirmed a year after Truss government advised Charles not to attend Egypt eventKing Charles is to attend the opening ceremony of the Cop28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates, one year after he was advised by Liz Truss's government not to attend the Cop27 summit in Egypt.Charles will deliver the opening address at the world climate action summit, a gathering of global leaders at the start of Cop28, in his first major speech on the climate crisis since becoming monarch. Continue reading...