World news | The Guardian

Health experts say axing plan to block sales of tobacco products to next generation will cost thousands of livesNew Zealand's new government will scrap the country's world-leading law to ban smoking for future generations to help pay for tax cuts - a move that public health officials believe will cost thousands of lives and be catastrophic" for Mori communities.In 2022 the country passed pioneering legislation which introduced a steadily rising smoking age to stop those born after January 2009 from ever being able to legally buy cigarettes. The law was designed to prevent thousands of smoking-related deaths and save the health system billions of dollars. Continue reading...

Largest 350 listed firms making glacial progress' to remove barriers to women at work, says Pipeline gender parity studyWomen hold just one in five commercial roles on the boards of Britain's 350 largest listed companies, according to research that suggests firms have blind spots and operate at various levels of consciousness" when it comes to senior female staff.Many are failing to address important barriers that women face in the workplace, the report found, including operating a woman tax", whereby women are given additional tasks alongside their day jobs without placing the same expectation on their male peers. Continue reading...

Israel frees more prisoners in exchange but insists its military campaign in Gaza is far from over

Eli Cohen criticised Leo Varadkar's description of nine-year-old Emily Hand as being lost', not kidnapped'

Many expect pause to be extended if more hostages are released, but experts predict military campaign could run into next year

Public bodies involved including Ofsted will have costs paid for hearing at Berkshire coroner's courtThe family of the headteacher Ruth Perry, whose death after a critical Ofsted inspection will be the subject of a high-profile inquest this week, have been refused legal aid to fund their representation just days before the hearing is due to start.While other interested parties, including Ofsted, the local council and NHS trust, will - as public bodies - have their legal costs paid out of the public purse, the headteacher's family say they have had to resort to crowdfunding to pay their legal costs.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Richard Tice responds to claims by Conservative deputy chair Lee Anderson that he was offered a lot of money' to switchConservative MPs have not been offered money to defect to Reform UK, the party's leader, Richard Tice, has stressed, amid claims that Lee Anderson was offered a lot of money" last month.Anderson, the MP for Ashfield and one of the Conservative party's deputy chairs, was recorded telling Tory activists last month: A political party that begins with an R offered me a lot of money to join them. I mean a lot of money, I mean a lot of money." Continue reading...

Shares issued in Lismore store which also serves as bank, post office and social hub for 160 permanent residents on islandMost people appreciate a decent local shop - somewhere to buy a pint of milk, a newspaper and perhaps the odd chocolate bar. But if that shop is the only one on your island, it takes on a much greater significance.There were celebrations on the Scottish island of Lismore this week when its community saved its only shop - also its bank, post office and social hub - after funding a buyout. Continue reading...

Russia has conducted airstrikes in support of ground operations as it aims to surround city on outskirts of DonetskIt's just after 2.30pm in Kyiv. Here are the day's main developments so far:Russia has brought down at least 24 drones over the Moscow region and three other provinces to the south and west, the Russian defence ministry and the Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin have reported in a series of Telegram updates. One person was injured in Tula when an intercepted drone hit an apartment building, the region's governor, Alexei Dyumin, said.The spokesman for Ukraine's ground forces, Volodymyr Fitio, has told the United News telethon that Russian soldiers seek to reoccupy" the town of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region.Russia has placed the Meta spokesperson Andy Stone on a wanted list, according to the state-run TASS news agency. TASS said the Russian interior ministry had opened a criminal investigation against Stone but had not disclosed the details of the investigation or charges.The UK government has been urged to take immediate action to disrupt supply of technology used in electronic warfare. A dossier, compiled by Ukraine and circulated to the leading countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, identifies key Russian companies involved in the development and production of electronic military equipment. It says the UK and other countries have not yet imposed sanctions on some of the firms involved.Indeed, Russian invaders have not abandoned their intentions to attack ... to advance toward the town of Kupiansk. They seek to reoccupy it. In this area, Ukrainian defenders repelled four enemy attacks. It was near Usenkivka and Ivanivka. The enemy intends to advance to the settlement of Sinkivka in order to develop their further success in the offensive on Kupiansk. Continue reading...

Officers were called to altercation between two audience members at touring hit show at Palace TheatrePolice are investigating after a fight broke out between theatregoers during a performance of Hamilton in Manchester.Officers were called to an altercation between two audience members on Friday night, just days after the hit musical opened at the Palace Theatre at the start of a nationwide tour. Continue reading...

Police are investigating operations at Royal Sussex County hospital over alleged negligence and cover-upsA hospital is being urged to suspend surgeons whose operations are being examined by police as part of a widening investigation into alleged medical negligence and cover-ups over dozens of deaths and harm to patients.Sussex police have yet to confirm the number of cases under investigation in the general surgery and neurosurgery departments at Royal Sussex County hospital in Brighton. But since it was launched in June, Operation Bamber has widened to include more recent cases and is now believed to involve alleged mistakes in the treatment of more than 100 patients from 2015 and 2021, including at least 40 who died. Continue reading...

Eighteen months after action was announced, there is daylight for the RMT; but Aslef and the bosses still aren't talkingAnother week of rail misery beckons for British passengers from Friday, with that all-too-familiar disruption to services around the country: the latest wave in a national pay dispute in which the first strikes were announced 18 months ago.A nine-day overtime ban announced by Aslef for train drivers will shred timetables, while a concurrent series of rolling 24-hour strikes will halt all trains at different operators daily as December arrives. Continue reading...

Performers say Westminster council move to enforce licences and restrict acts' volume, staging and props threatens a centuries-old London traditionThe incongruously tropical sounds of The Girl From Ipanema float through the chill afternoon air in Covent Garden as shoppers pass a couple of buskers performing an inspired rendition of the bossa nova classic.In front of the young singer and the guitarist accompanying her is the guitar's case, holding a handful of coins. Little is added to it as they run through Misty, Fly Me to the Moon and a haunting Silent Night. But their efforts aren't unappreciated. Dancing around them are twins Hubert and Harold Pereira, connoisseurs of street performers. Hubert says London has good ones, but in New York and other US cities, they're better because they're bigger". Continue reading...

Two women aged 82 and 76 declared dead at the scene and three men aged 90, 79 and 78 taken to hospitalTwo women have died and three men have been left injured after a collision involving five vehicles in Wolverhampton.West Midlands police said the two women, aged 82 and 76, were found in a critical condition and were declared dead at the scene in Ettingshall in the south of the city at 3.37pm on Saturday. Continue reading...

Data has been supplied to World Health Organization and China says flu and other known pathogens are culpritsA surge in respiratory illnesses across China that has drawn the attention of the World Health Organization is caused by the flu and other known pathogens and not by a novel virus, the country's health ministry said on Sunday.Recent clusters of respiratory infections are caused by an overlap of common viruses such as the influenza virus, rhinoviruses, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and adenovirus, as well as bacteria such as mycoplasma pneumoniae, which is a common culprit for respiratory tract infections, a National Health Commission spokesperson said. Continue reading...

A joint operation between the Australian federal police and Australian Border Force will monitor strict new conditions placed upon detainees

Wooden hut in Kent is Britain's oldest operating sauna and hugely important' piece of sporting historyA modest prefabricated hut that sat almost forgotten in suburban Kent for more than half a century is at the centre of an international preservation campaign, after it was recognised as a hugely important" piece of sporting history - and Britain's oldest operating sauna.Finland's ambassador to the UK is leading a campaign to gain listed status for the fragile wooden sauna, which is an extremely rare survivor of the 1948 austerity" Olympics, hosted on a shoestring in London three years after the end of the second world war. Continue reading...

Rates for shot against pneumococcal disease are also lagging, says Grattan Institute, urging government to increase take-up

Oleksandr Kamyshin aims to revive state sector and coordinate private enterprises to boost export of weapons

Attacks on US troops in Iraq have led to US airstrikes, highlighting the risk of spillover from the situation in GazaA salvo of machine gun fire, customary during funerals, illuminated the night sky as dozens of men converged in a dimly lit, unpaved alley on the edges of the sprawling slums of Sadr city to pay their respects. A giant picture of Ali Hassan al-Daraaji had been erected outside the family home in northeast Baghdad to announce his martyrdom" in this week's US airstrikes on Iraqi armed groups.The series of strikes left a total of nine fighters dead, including Daraaji, the first Iraqi fatalities linked to the Israel-Hamas war. Even as a tenuous truce takes hold in Gaza, the pace and intensity of clashes in Iraq has picked up, highlighting the risk of spillover in a country that has long been mired in conflict. Continue reading...

Exclusive: women tell study they were punished for breaking rules rather than supported when they reported incidentsWomen in the British military who report sexual assaults are being ostracised and punished for breaching minor rules, research shows.The forces' misogynistic and toxic" culture of laddish" behaviour shapes the way it deals with and understands sexual assaults, according to the study, which is published in the Royal United Services Institution Journal. Continue reading...

Aysen Dennis, who accused Southwark council of social cleansing', continues court challenge over Aylesbury estate plansThe bulldozers will soon be out for the south London council flat that was Aysen Dennis's home for 30 years. After leading a fierce battle against the council and developers, claiming their plans to fill much of her estate with private homes amounted to social cleansing", she has finally moved.Dennis, 65, has been relocated to a swanky new flat in a development bought back by Southwark council. She claims it paid 690,000 for her ninth-floor flat with panoramic views of the park - and is convinced it was an attempt to shut her up before a legal challenge. Continue reading...

Furious council leaders warn chancellor that austerity measures could force flagship blue counties' to go bankruptJeremy Hunt has been warned he will trigger a fire sale of public assets, reduce councils to an emergency service and put the vulnerable at greater risk after an autumn statement pointing to a new wave of austerity.There will be a significant increase in the number of councils in effect returning the town hall keys" to government because they are no longer sustainable, according to council leaders. In a furious response to the autumn statement, they said several flagship blue counties" could go bankrupt just as next year's election is called. Continue reading...

Ex-wife of Michel Fourniret will be tried for her role in three more murders, including that of 20-year-old Leeds student Joanna ParrishFor more than 30 years, the parents of British student Joanna Parrish have battled for justice for their daughter, murdered by the French serial killer Michel Fourniret in 1990.Often, when the killer was still unidentified and at large, Roger Parrish and his ex-wife Pauline would travel to northern Burgundy looking for clues, appealing for witnesses, badgering seemingly insouciant investigators to do their job, seeking answers they never found. Continue reading...

Anti-Islam MP who won recent election says he will continue to moderate' his positions to gain powerVeteran Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders on Saturday vowed to be prime minister of the Netherlands, after an election in which his party won the most seats.In a long post on X, formerly Twitter, that expressed frustration at other parties for their apparent unwillingness to cooperate with his Freedom party (PVV), Wilders said he would continue to moderate" his positions if necessary to gain power. Continue reading...

With 42 women and children set to be released under the ceasefire deal, hopes for family reunions are running high in the West BankThe daughters of the Awad family were busy dressing up at their home in Qalandiya, on the West Bank side of the notorious checkpoint, on Saturday evening. Hair was curled and eyeliner applied; all four chose outfits in black and white to match their Palestinian keffiyeh scarves. The celebration was to mark the unexpected release of their big sister, Noorhan, 24, from prison in Israel. She was jailed eight years ago; the youngest, 10-year-old Mayar, does not remember her.Their community centre was decked out with Palestinian flags and posters of Noorhan and two other young people from the neighbourhood. So much has changed since Noorhan was home last," said her mother Sumaya. We are so excited. I don't want to hope too much." Continue reading...

Sanctuary sets up heaters to take chill off rescue animals that have lost habit of entering full hibernationWorkers at a bear sanctuary in Pristina are working hard to look after a lion that wants to play in the snow and bears who were removed from their natural habitat when they were cubs and also enjoy the snowy conditions because they do not hibernate any more.As the winter's first snowfall covered Bear Sanctuary Prishtina in the Kosovan capital, visitors enjoyed the sight of a lion playing before quickly taking shelter indoors where a heater was installed to fend off temperatures which fell below freezing. Continue reading...

Writing from prison, Alexander Csergo says investigators have found no evidence' and fallout from case will embarrass Australia

Labour leader gives strongest hint yet of support for loan deal with Greece if his party wins next electionThe Greek government has been assured by Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour party, that in the event of electoral victory next year he will not block a prospective arrangement to return the Parthenon marbles to Athens.Speaking through aides before talks in London with the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Starmer gave his strongest hint yet of his support for a loan deal that would see the antiquities return to the country where they were carved 2,500 years ago. Continue reading...

Second brokered release will not happen until Israel allows aid trucks to enter northern Gaza, says militant group

Brazilian Deliveroo worker Caio Benicio used motorbike helmet to hit assailant who was attacking children outside a schoolAlmost 300,000 has been raised for a delivery driver who intervened in an attack by a man suspected of attacking children outside a school in Dublin.Caio Benicio was on his motorbike in Dublin city centre when he spotted the attack on Thursday. He said he used his helmet to hit the assailant with all my power". Continue reading...

The ex-para who advised Ridley Scott on the new movie's battle scenes claims historians who attacked it have fallen for Bonaparte's own hypeCritics of the damaging" and inaccurate" portrayal of Napoleon Bonaparte in Ridley Scott's new cinematic epic Napoleon are just victims of the French emperor's enduring propaganda, according to the military adviser behind the film's vast battle scenes.Paul Biddiss claims that Old Boney", as he was known to the Duke of Wellington's British troops, was promoted largely because he elaborated on his own successes. Bonaparte's fibs impressed all France and intimidated his enemies - until, that is, he met his Waterloo in 1815. Continue reading...

Video shows Ohad Munder, nine, running into father's arms as total of 24 people freed by Hamas in prisoner exchange

Pope cancelled Saturday activities due to light flu' a week before key climate addressPope Francis has undergone hospital tests after he came down with the flu but the results ruled out any respiratory problems, the Vatican said.Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, underwent a Cat scan, the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said. Continue reading...

Hamas released 24 hostages on Friday, including 13 Israelis, one Filipino man and 10 Thai citizens

This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story herePictures show a school that was hit by Russia's drone attack on Kyiv last night. Ukraine said the overnight drone attack was the largest of the war so far.It's approaching 2pm in Kyiv. Here are the day's main developments so far:The former Russian prime minister turned Kremlin critic Mikhail Kasyanov has been added to a list of foreign agents", Russia's justice ministry has announced. Kasyanov, who was the first head of Putin's government in the early 2000s, now appears in the justice ministry's register of foreign agents, a term reminiscent of the Soviet-era enemy of the people".Five people have been injured after Russia struck the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in what officials said was its largest drone attack of the war to date. The attack began hitting different districts of Kyiv in the early hours of Saturday, with more waves coming at sunrise. The air raid warning lasted six hours.The Swiss president, Alain Berset, is in Kyiv to meet his Ukrainian counterpart and attend an international summit on food security.The UK says Russia's Black Sea fleet is facing issues reloading its vessels with cruise missiles. Continue reading...

Five people injured in Kyiv attack in what could be start of winter campaign to destroy infrastructure Russia-Ukraine war - latest news updatesRussia has sent waves of kamikaze drones into Ukraine in what Kyiv claims is the most intensive drone attack since the start of the war. Many in Ukraine fear it could be the start of a long campaign of strikes aimed at destroying the energy infrastructure.Kyiv was the main target," the Ukrainian Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on his Telegram channel. The capital was attacked in the early hours of Saturday with around 75 Iranian-made Shahed drones, Ukrainian officials claimed, adding that 71 had been shot down. Continue reading...

Office for Budget Responsibility says UK entry into the Indo-Pacific agreement will add just 0.04% to GDP in the long runThe UK's flagship trans-Pacific trade deal, which was presented as a cornerstone of post-Brexit global Britain", will deliver even less benefit to the economy than the tiny uplift that was previously predicted, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.In a report accompanying last week's autumn statement, the OBR said the UK's entry into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) would add just 0.04% to GDP in the long run", which it defines as after 15 years of membership. Continue reading...

Ten of the dozen other candidates had refused to campaign and called on voters to shun the ballotThe president of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina, has been re-elected in the first round of a ballot boycotted by nearly all opposition candidates, the national election commission said.Rajoelina won 58.95% of the votes cast in the 16 November presidential election, according to figures presented by the poll body, although the result needs to be validated by the constitutional court. Continue reading...

Feras al-Jayoosi, 36, charged with stalking Justin Tomlinson, MP for North Swindon, in series of emailsA man has been remanded in custody for allegedly sending threatening and abusive messages about Israel and Gaza to a Conservative MP.Feras al-Jayoosi, 36, from Swindon, Wiltshire, was arrested by counter-terrorism officers on Thursday on suspicion of harassment. Continue reading...

No new investment in staffing and buildings in England and Wales, despite Rishi Sunak's funding pledgeHeadteachers have called the government's failure to invest in school staff and crumbling buildings in the autumn statement an absolute disgrace".Unions said this weekend that the government had now lost any vestiges of credibility among teachers after the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, failed to announce any new investment for schools on Wednesday - despite Rishi Sunak's pledge at last month's Conservative party conference that education would be his main funding priority". Continue reading...

Billionaire submits proposals for scheme that government minister Robert Jenrick pushed in 2020, with nearly twice the number of properties of original plansA Tory donor is drawing up fresh plans for a controversial property scheme that was at the heart of a lobbying row involving a senior minister.Richard Desmond, the billionaire former owner of the Daily Express, has submitted new proposals for a huge housing project in east London, with almost twice the amount of housing envisaged under the original plans. Continue reading...

Efforts to free 41 workers stuck in tunnel for almost two weeks hit another setback as earth-boring machine breaks downIndian rescue workers have brought in a new digging machine to open a vertical shaft to free 41 men trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel, after efforts via another route hit a snag metres away from them.In the latest setback in attempts to rescue the increasingly desperate workers, who have been trapped for almost two weeks, engineers driving a metal pipe through 57 metres (187ft) of rock and concrete ran into metal rods and construction vehicles buried in the earth. Continue reading...

Former PM accused of opposing special military operation' in Ukraine and being member of Anti-War Committee of RussiaThe former Russian prime minister turned Kremlin critic Mikhail Kasyanov has been added to a list of foreign agents", Russia's justice ministry has announced.Kasyanov, who was the first head of Putin's government in the early 2000s, now appears in the justice ministry's register of foreign agents, a term reminiscent of the Soviet-era enemy of the people". Continue reading...

Home secretary says policy not be all and end all' of plans to tackle illegal immigration, in clear break from BravermanJames Cleverly has said he is frustrated with the fixation on the government's Rwanda policy, saying it is not the be all and end all" of plans to tackle illegal immigration.The home secretary, who replaced Suella Braverman after she was sacked almost a fortnight ago, told the Times he had become frustrated with the focus on the Rwanda plan. Continue reading...

Deadly blaze that began on fourth floor of six-storey building in commercial capital leaves 35 injuredAt least 11 people have been killed and 35 injured in a fire at a shopping mall in Pakistan's commercial capital of Karachi, officials said.More than 60 people were inside the mall when the fire broke out on the fourth floor of the six-storey building in the southern port city. Continue reading...

Group of nine men and one woman being treated in hospital before returning to Thailand to reunite with families

Findings may not be released until summer as process of writing to those likely to be criticised proving time-consuming'The official findings about what caused the Grenfell Tower disaster have been delayed again and may not be released until the middle of next year - seven years after the council block fire that killed 72 people.It was initially hoped that the report would be published this autumn, then it was pushed to early next year. But now it may not be until summer. It means potential criminal prosecutions for manslaughter, fraud and health and safety offences will also be delayed, with any trials unlikely to start until late 2025 or even 2026. Continue reading...

Shake-up will mean people can pay into more than one Isa of the same type, but experts say 20,000 limit should also riseGetting the best out of Isas should become easier for UK savers after the government announced a shake-up that will let them hop on to higher-paying accounts if they become available.The autumn statement documents revealed ministers are making a series of changes to simplify" Isas. As well as giving people more choice, these will reduce the risk of people accidentally breaking the rules. But some commentators argued that the various changes made the system more complicated, not less. Continue reading...