Oliver Lewin wanted ‘widespread coordinated attacks’ on infrastructure, prosecution saysA terror suspect plotted to “topple the government” by attacking major communications infrastructure, a court has heard.Oliver Lewin is accused of carrying out reconnaissance of potential targets, purchasing equipment and tools, digging hideouts and seeking to recruit others. Continue reading...
Business rates revaluation likely to hit hospitals and colleges, while big banks and department stores such as Harrods benefitHospitals, colleges and fire stations are likely to face 15%-20% rises in property tax next year while big banks, including the Bank of England, and department stores such as Harrods will see their bills fall.The government on Thursday released details of a revaluation of properties across England and Wales for the calculation of business rates, with many public buildings expected to be among the losers and those in big offices, the largest retail properties and historic hotels among the winners. Continue reading...
by Jessica Murray Midlands correspondent on (#65ZR1)
Family accuses force of ‘appalling’ failure to protect Raneem Oudeh and Khaola Saleem, killed by Oudeh’s abusive former partnerPolice failings “materially contributed” to the deaths of a 22-year-old woman and her mother who were murdered by the daughter’s abusive former partner, an inquest has found.Raneem Oudeh and her mother, Khaola Saleem, 49, were stabbed to death by Oudeh’s estranged husband, Janbaz Tarin, in August 2018, after he had subjected her to stalking, domestic violence and coercive control for more than a year. Continue reading...
by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#65Z1E)
Campaigners hope agreement will change military norms, though it was not endorsed by countries including Russia, Israel and ChinaEighty countries led by the US, UK and France have signed a declaration in Dublin pledging to refrain from urban bombing, the first time countries have agreed to curb the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.The international agreement is a product of more than three years of negotiation – predating the war in Ukraine – but was not endorsed by several major military powers, including Russia, China, Israel and India. Continue reading...
PM returns from G20 summit to face difficult economic circumstances that will soon become challenging political onesOn the tropical island of Bali, Rishi Sunak has been enjoying a honeymoon as a global statesman at the G20. He struck up a bromance with Canada’s Justin Trudeau and managed a crucial first bilateral talk with US president, Joe Biden. The only major hiccup was a missed encounter with China’s president, Xi Jinping, as he attempted to reset relations after a period of extended frost.But back home, the climate of domestic politics is decidedly chillier, with little sign Sunak is enjoying much of the bounce in the polls new prime ministers used to expect. Continue reading...
Stoppages will affect passport and border checks, driving tests and farm payments throughout ChristmasCivil servants in three Whitehall departments will take “sustained” strike action for a month from mid-December, as the first step in an “escalating” campaign, the Public and Commercial Services union has announced.Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said the initial action in the Home Office, Department for Transport and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, would involve “low thousands” of the 100,000 members who backed strike action in a recent ballot. Continue reading...
Moscow says it wants US to return convicted arms trafficker in swap that would include basketball star jailed on drug chargesRussia has said that it hopes to complete a prisoner swap with the United States to return convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout in an exchange that would likely include US basketball star Brittney Griner.Amid the deadliest war in Europe since 1945, Russia and the United States are exploring a deal that could see imprisoned Americans including Griner return to the United States in exchange for Bout. Continue reading...
David Hunter is no longer facing murder trial and hopes to be reunited with family in UK by ChristmasA British man detained in Cyprus for almost a year after being accused of murdering his terminally ill wife, has agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter in an effort to be reunited with his family in Britain by Christmas.David Hunter, who has been held in the country’s overcrowded prison, will enter the plea on 5 December after his legal team announced the murder charge was “no longer on the table”. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#65ZG5)
Jordan McSweeney had been recalled to prison when he killed 35-year-old in Ilford, east LondonA man has pleaded guilty to pulling Zara Aleena off the street as she walked home after an evening out, and then kicking and stamping her to death.At the Old Bailey on Friday Jordan McSweeney, 29, admitted he murdered Aleena on 26 June 2022, in Ilford, east London. Continue reading...
Footage shows mother of Kian Pirfalak telling mourners officials are ‘lying’ about cause of son’s deathProtesters at the funeral of a young boy whose family say was killed by Iranian security forces have chanted anti-regime slogans and ridiculed the official account of his death.Hundreds of mourners flocked to the city of Izeh in south-western Iran for the funeral of Kian Pirfalak, according to footage posted online. Continue reading...
China is responsible for more cumulative emissions than any country other than the USLate on Thursday night in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the Cop27 UN climate talks seemed stuck in an irretrievable logjam. Rich and poor countries had reached deadlock, a “breakdown between north and south”, according to the UN secretary general, António Guterres.By Friday morning, the talks had been upended and the battleground dramatically redrawn, in a way it has not been in 30 years of these annual talks. At stake is the question of whether some of the world’s leading economies – countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf petrostates, Russia and countries with high per capita income such as South Korea and Singapore – should start contributing for the first time to help the poorest and most vulnerable with the impacts of climate disaster. Continue reading...
by Josh Halliday North of England correspondent on (#65ZDC)
Elbow frontman criticises council after 30-year-old venue says noise complaints may force it to closeManchester risks losing a “vital organ of culture” if its famous Night & Day cafe is forced to close because of noise complaints, the Elbow singer Guy Garvey has said.The 30-year-old venue is facing a crucial court hearing this month after it was issued with a noise abatement notice by Manchester city council. Continue reading...
Swedish prosecutor says ‘complex’ investigation and analysis continue to see if suspects can be identifiedTraces of explosives have been found at the sites of September’s multiple leaks from the Nord Stream gas pipelines, confirming that the breaches were the result of sabotage, Sweden’s prosecution authority has said.“Analysis that has now been carried out shows traces of explosives on several of the objects that were recovered” from the scene in the Baltic Sea, Mats Ljungqvist, the prosecutor leading the investigation, said on Friday. Continue reading...
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington on (#65YZD)
Court filing says Saudi crown prince’s promotion to the role of prime minister meant that he was ‘the sitting head of government and, accordingly, immune’The Biden administration has told a US court that Mohammed bin Salman should be granted sovereign immunity in a civil case involving the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, effectively ending a last ditch attempt to hold the Saudi crown prince legally accountable for the 2018 killing.In a filing released on late on Thursday night, the Biden administration said the crown prince’s recent promotion to the role of prime minister meant that he was “the sitting head of government and, accordingly, immune” from the lawsuit. Continue reading...
Christopher Wray says the FBI is investigating the existence of stations in New York, which could violate sovereigntyThe United States is deeply concerned about the Chinese government setting up unauthorised “police stations” in US cities to possibly pursue influence operations, FBI director Christopher Wray has said.“I’m very concerned about this. We are aware of the existence of these stations,” Wray told a US Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee hearing, acknowledging the FBI’s investigative work on the issue but declining to give details. Continue reading...
Amid race for influence in Asia-Pacific region, Chinese president says no attempt to ‘wage a new cold war will ever be allowed by the people or by our times’The Asia-Pacific is no one’s back yard and should not become an arena of big power rivalry, China’s president, Xi Jinping, has said, warning against cold war tensions in a region that is a flashpoint of competition between Beijing and Washington.Xi’s remarks on Thursday came ahead of Friday’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Bangkok, and were an apparent reference to US efforts with regional allies and partners to blunt what they see as China’s growing coercive economic and military influence in the region. Continue reading...
‘Danger to life’ warning issued for parts of Scotland, with some areas braced for a month’s worth of rain in 36 hoursThe UK is braced for more heavy winds, rain and flooding on Thursday night after being hit by half a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours following a period of unseasonably warm weather, as the Met Office issued a “possible danger to life” warning for parts of Scotland.The amber warning, which will cover part of eastern Scotland, will come into force from the early hours of Friday until 3pm. Continue reading...
Lawyers say US basketball star ‘doing as well as could be expected’ at IK-2 in Mordovia, following visitBasketball star Brittney Griner has been sent to a remote Russian penal colony to start serving her sentence, her lawyers have said.“Brittney began serving her sentence at IK-2 in Mordovia,” lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov said in a statement. Continue reading...
Several more were injured as flames burst through top floor of four-storey building in Jabalia refugee campAt least 21 people have been killed and several others injured after a fire broke out during a party in the northern Gaza Strip, in one of the deadliest recent incidents outside the violence stemming from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.It took firefighters more than an hour to gain control of the massive flames that burst through the top floor of a four-storey residential building in the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip. Continue reading...
Workers at the facility in Spalding that makes own-brand products for major supermarkets rejected a 6.5% pay offerMore than 700 workers at a food manufacturing facility that supplies Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Marks and Spencer will strike from late November until the new year in a row over pay.Workers on the production line at the factory in Spalding, Lincolnshire, make own-brand salads, dips, sauces and deli produce for the UK’s major supermarkets. Continue reading...
The activist’s mother was allowed to visit her son for the first time in nearly a month on ThursdayThe family of British-Egyptian political prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah say his health has visibly deteriorated due to the escalation of his hunger strike after being allowed to visit him today.This was the first time the activist’s mother, Laila Soueif, had been allowed to visit him in nearly a month. Prison authorities repeatedly denied her access last week. Continue reading...
Gerald Nicolas, 51, accused of conspiring to overthrow government of Jovenel Moïse, who was later assassinated in separate plotCanadian police have charged a Quebec man with terrorism over allegations he conspired to overthrow the government of the late Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, who was later assassinated in a separate plot.Gerald Nicolas, 51, stands accused of leaving Canada to facilitate a terrorist activity, facilitating a terrorist activity and providing property for terrorist purposes, Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Thursday. Continue reading...
Mother of victim speaks of relief at guilty verdicts in the Netherlands against three accused of 2014 massacreThe mother of an Australian victim of MH17 has spoken of her relief after guilty verdicts were read out in a court in the Netherlands against three of the four men accused of shooting the plane out of the sky.Meryn O’Brien, who lost her 25-year-old son Jack, said: “Everyone was relieved the process has come to an end, and it is very fair, and it has been meticulous.” Continue reading...
Mayor Anne Hidalgo is said to be leaning towards outlawing fleets after rise in fatal accidentsAn electric scooter rider in Paris has been killed after colliding with a lorry, days before the mayor, Anne Hidalgo, decides on whether to outlaw e-scooter rental fleets.The deputy mayor, Emmanuel Gregoire, told AFP on Thursday that while they were still discussing the problem, Hidalgo was leaning towards a ban that would make Paris one of a few big cities to implement such a ban. Continue reading...
With health and education protected, other departments will struggle to cope with rising costsJeremy Hunt’s autumn statement included £28bn in public spending cuts – much of it backloaded until after the next general election – but the pain will not fall equally across government departments. While health and education will get more, inflation will eat into budgets for justice, transport and big infrastructure projects. Here’s how the plans stack up:Health Continue reading...
People told to make daily round trips of up to three hours and that not turning up on time may result in failure, union saysPeople training as Border Force guards have been stripped of free accommodation while they are being taught how to assess people seeking asylum who are subsequently placed in hotels, a union has disclosed.Instead, they have been asked to drive or use public transport for round-trip journeys of several hours to their training courses, a spokesperson for the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said. The trainees face the possibility of failing their course if they do not turn up on time. Continue reading...
Landmark decision described as ‘huge victory for freedom of expression and right to peaceful protest in Europe’Activists who were accused of attempting to “pollute, damage and distort” the Acropolis after they hung a banner from the Athenian monument in protest against China’s policies in Tibet have been acquitted by a Greek court.In a landmark decision described as a victory for human rights defenders globally, an three-member tribunal threw out the charge on Thursday. A public prosecutor had only minutes earlier pressed for a guilty verdict. Continue reading...
Four-month-old denied treatment as she tested negative for coronavirus and family was told case not urgentThe death of a four-month-old baby in central China has stoked public anger on social media as frustrations mount over Beijing’s stringent “dynamic zero Covid” policy, which has confined millions to their homes and sparked angry protests.The girl died after suffering vomiting and diarrhoea while in quarantine at a hotel in the city of Zhengzhou, according to a post by her father, Li Baoliang, on China’s Twitter-like platform Weibo on Wednesday. Continue reading...
by Richard Partington Economics correspondent on (#65YC2)
More to be asked to meet a ‘work coach’ but experts cite jump in long-term sickness due to gaps in public servicesJeremy Hunt has launched a drive to halt an exodus from the British jobs market through a crackdown on benefit claimants.The chancellor said the government would ask more than 600,000 further people on universal credit to meet a “work coach” so that they “can get the support they need” to increase their hours or earnings. Continue reading...
Firm reports £219m half-year losses and asks government to let it move to weekday-only service to cut costsRoyal Mail has asked the government to let it stop delivering letters on Saturdays, arguing it is financially unsustainable and that there is widespread public apathy over the need for a weekend service.Royal Mail said it needed to move to a weekday-only letter delivery service as soon as possible – which can only happen if the government allows a change to the company’s universal service obligations – after it reported a £219m loss in the six months to September. Continue reading...
Authorities believe the fire was part of a series of 19 arson attempts, and was not politically motivatedA fire that tore through a shelter for Ukrainian refugees in north-east Germany last month was started by one of the firefighters who later helped to extinguish it, according to prosecutors in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, who have arrested the 32-year-old man.A swastika daubed on a Red Cross sign outside the repurposed thatched-roof hotel in the town of Groß Strömkendorf two days before the fire had led some to speculate about a political motive behind the arson attack, which caused millions of euros worth of damage. None of the shelter’s 17 inhabitants were harmed. Continue reading...
Conservative MP for Tonbridge and Malling sentenced for driving with mobile phone in his handThe UK security minister, Tom Tugendhat, has been banned from driving for six months after being caught driving with his mobile phone in his hand.The Conservative MP for Tonbridge and Malling was stopped by police in his Skoda 4x4 in Wandsworth on 14 April. Continue reading...
Discount grocer bounces back from Covid disruption as profits in Great Britain soared 319% from last yearLidl has said it has taken £58m in additional sales from traditional supermarkets in the past month, as shoppers look for ways to save money, after quadrupling profits in a bounce back from Covid disruption.The German-owned discount grocer, said its British sales rose 1.5% to £7.8bn in the year to the end of February but pretax profits soared 319% to £41.1m as the group trimmed costs as measures to control the Covid-19 virus eased. Continue reading...
Volodymyr Zelenskiy says ‘communist-era rubbish Russian infrastructure’ will be replaced by latest technology and fund will accelerate country’s economy
The story of a widowed joiner and a young single mother has been written by Dave Johns, who played the title role in Ken Loach’s 2016 filmKen Loach’s Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake is to be adapted for a stage production written by the film’s star. Dave Johns, who played the title role on screen in 2016, said that in researching his new version of the story he found its portrait of poverty more relevant than ever as the UK’s cost-of-living crisis is “making it even harder for those who are already struggling”.The play will have its premiere in May at Northern Stage in Newcastle, the city where I, Daniel Blake was set. It will then go on a UK tour. Continue reading...
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