Terms ranged up to life in prison and included high-profile culprits Salah Abdeslam and Mohamed AbriniA Belgian court has handed out sentences of up to life in jail to eight men for the 2016 jihadist bombing attacks in Brussels, bringing to an end the country's largest-ever criminal trial.The suicide bombings on 22 March 2016 at Brussels' main airport and on the metro system killed 32 people and were claimed by the Islamic State group. Continue reading...
Diplomatic and media blitz for Labour leader will include appearances on Sunday morning political showsKeir Starmer has arrived in Canada to set out his doctrine for tackling international threats at a gathering of world leaders, the latest step in the Labour leader's move to flesh out policy in politically turbulent areas such as immigration.Amid continued efforts by Starmer and his team to push back against the nonsense" that closer cooperation with the EU would involve the UK having to accept 100,000 asylum-seekers a year, the Labour leader was in Montreal for the Global Progress Action Summit of centre-left politicians. Continue reading...
by Lorenzo Tondo in Uman and Bethan McKernan in Jerus on (#6ESSZ)
The annual pilgrimage brings both prayers and partying to Uman. Many have been undeterred by official pleas to stay away this yearUnfazed by the bombs, undeterred by the warnings, and in the face of the raging conflict, more than 35,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews from across the world have journeyed to Uman, Ukraine, to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.Going to celebrate in a war zone en masse is crazy," said Azoulay Ruben, a 22-year-old trainee dentist from Paris. But at the same time, it's a beautiful thing." Continue reading...
No extra money for childcare revolution as policies on areas from green economy to immigration are set outLabour has put stable public finances and prudent spending" at the heart of its offer for the 2024 manifesto, pledging iron discipline on how new policies are funded.The party's new national policy forum document suggests there may be no additional money for sweeping childcare reforms and that there could be a delay to returning to the 0.7% aid target. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Bletchley Park event, to be attended by world leaders, is taking place as concerns grow about Beijing spying on the westRishi Sunak is considering banning Chinese officials from half of his artificial intelligence safety summit in November, amid growing concern over widespread spying by Beijing on western governments.Downing Street has already invited China to attend the summit, which will be held in early November at Bletchley Park and is set to shape the international community's approach to AI for years to come. Continue reading...
by Mark Brown North of England correspondent on (#6ESFX)
Coroner says there are questions to be asked about how this incident happened' after Jack Piper-Sheach diedA coroner has said there are questions to be asked over the death of a 10-year-old boy who was electrocuted at a Blackpool hotel while on a family holiday.Jack Piper-Sheach of Grimsby suffered serious injuries as a result of an incident in the lobby of Tiffany's Hotel on 3 September. Continue reading...
Manchester extends own measures to prevent women from being harassed after legislation delaysManchester city council has decided to extend its own measures for preventing women from being harassed when visiting abortion clinics due to delays in government legislation on buffer zones coming into effect.The Public Order Act, which received royal assent in May, included an amendment which makes it a criminal offence across England and Wales to harass, obstruct or interfere with any woman attending an abortion clinic. Continue reading...
Presenter Joe Lycett and retired graphic designer Helen Lycett will show their work in London with proceeds to go to charityTake a comedian and his somewhat unwilling parent, send them on a roadtrip, throw the pair in amusing situations, and you have a winning TV format. Unless you are Joe Lycett.Lycett and his mum, Helen Lycett, decided against a sheep-herding, cheerleading-filled travel documentary series, and announced instead their second collaborative exhibition, aptly named Lycett and Mummy. Continue reading...
Travel and tour operators are getting involved in the country's relief effort, knowing how vital tourism is to its economyMy family is safe," our tour guide Sara Chakir said as we huddled in the streets outside Fez's medina, waiting for aftershocks until the early hours. Morocco's 6.8 magnitude earthquake had struck last Friday, 350 miles away in the Al Haouz region of the High Atlas mountains at just after 11pm. It was enough to send our riad swaying, but there was no apparent damage to people or place. It was only in the morning that the scale of destruction elsewhere was clear. Another tour guide, Hossain ait Mhand, said: My family is fine, but others in their town are not so lucky - homes have been flattened."I was on my way to a conference in Marrakech, about 40 miles north of where the earthquake was centred, but detoured home. Those already in the city saw blood bank queues snaking around the streets after a government call out. Marrakech's medina experienced damage, and 50 people were reported to have died there. Tourists trickled out of the city. Continue reading...
Works by Austrian expressionist were formerly owned by entertainer who died in concentration campThree artworks believed stolen during the Holocaust from a Jewish art collector and entertainer have been seized from museums in three different states by New York law enforcement authorities.The artworks by the Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele were previously owned by Fritz Grunbaum, a cabaret performer and songwriter who died at the Dachau concentration camp in 1941. Continue reading...
Details of thousands of officers may have been taken in ransomware attack on third-party supplierThe personal details of tens of thousands of public sector workers could have been breached in a cyber-attack that has hit two of Britain's biggest police forces, an expert has said.More than 12,500 Greater Manchester police (GMP) officers and staff were put on alert on Thursday that their private data had been compromised in a hack that also hit the Metropolitan police last month. Continue reading...
Florida six-week ban punishes anyone who actively participates' in termination but governor says only doctors criminally liableRon DeSantis has contradicted the wording of the six-week abortion ban that he himself signed into law in April, insisting that women who terminate their pregnancies will not be criminalized under the prohibition.The Florida governor and Republican White House hopeful told CBS Evening News that women would not be liable for fines and imprisonment under the ban. Only doctors who perform abortions would be targeted. Continue reading...
Actor, 82, said her new role as an alien in the sci-fi series has made an old woman very happy'Miriam Margolyes will feature in one of the 60th-anniversary episodes of Doctor Who that will air this November, the BBC has announced.Margolyes, 82, who has appeared in Blackadder, Babe and the Harry Potter films, will be the voice behind the Meep - or Beep the Meep - the furry and seemingly adorable alien adapted from the Star Beast comic strip in a special for the series. The creature will feature in an episode with the same name. Continue reading...
Israeli PM reportedly to meet X owner on Monday to discuss antisemitic content on platform formerly known as TwitterThe Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is reportedly to fly to Silicon Valley on Monday to meet the X owner, Elon Musk, to help ease a crisis over antisemitism on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.The meeting, which will include other tech leaders and was first reported by the Washington Post, follows Musk threatening to sue the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a US-based civil rights group that campaigns against antisemitism and bigotry. Continue reading...
It is a warning sign that the hospital's safety policies haven't worked, says a consultant anaesthetistThis week the health secretary, Steve Barclay, announced that the government would introduce Martha's rule in England, giving patients and their families the power to obtain a second opinion from senior medics in the same hospital if they are deteriorating rapidly and feel their concerns are being dismissed.It follows the campaign by the parents of Martha Mills, who died in 2021 after hospital doctors failed to admit her to intensive care. Martha, 13, died after developing sepsis at King's College hospital in south London. Continue reading...
Royal spin doctors imposed extraordinary restrictions' on covering King Charles III's accession, according to ex-head of Sky NewsBritish television channels agreed to let Buckingham Palace censor television coverage of King Charles's coronation, according to the former boss of Sky News.John Ryley, who stepped down in May after 17 years, said the monarchy imposed extraordinary restrictions" on channels covering this year's ceremony, including demanding the Orwellian" right to retrospectively ban footage after it had been broadcast. Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent on (#6ERJM)
Figures show that lenders flagged nearly 1.7bn of government-backed loans for potential fraud at end of JuneUK taxpayers have been forced to cover a larger bill for Covid support to companies than expected, after fresh government data showed the amount of pandemic business loans flagged for fraud had jumped by 43%.Figures released by the Department for Business and Trade showed that high street banks and other private lenders - which were responsible for distributing government-backed loans during the Covid crisis - had flagged nearly 1.7bn worth of loans for potential fraud at the end of June. That marks a 43% rise from the 1.1bn flagged three months earlier. Continue reading...
Labour leader says Tory response to his small boats plan shows they've nothing sensible to say on issue'. This live blog is closedRishi Sunak has claimed that 100,000 EU migrants could come to the UK every year under the approach outlined by Labour today. Keir Starmer says he would negotiate a returns deal with the EU, and he has not ruled out this involving the UK having to agree to take in a proportion of refugees.Speaking to reporters in Devon, Sunak said:Keir Starmer spent all of this year voting against our stop the boats bill, the toughest legislation that any government has passed to tackle illegal migration.I think he spent most of last year voting against a previous bill which has since then led to almost 700 arrests related to organised immigration crime, so I don't think it's credible that he really wants to grip this problem.The NHS has been looking at the issue of Raac since 2019 and was funded with almost 700m to mitigate Raac that it was finding in hospitals.There are now seven hospitals that are in the new hospital programme; as new evidence came to light about the scale of Raac it was important to prioritise those hospitals. Continue reading...
Exclusive: leaked documents show plans for senior managers to decide which courses can be attended in work hoursSuella Braverman is planning to impose strict vetting on diversity training courses for Home Office staff after criticisms from right-leaning media that the department has given in to woke" culture.Leaked documents show the Home Office has drawn up plans to halt courses that are deemed to promote policies contrary to the government, including critical race theory. Continue reading...
Former social mobility tsar Katharine Birbalsingh says proposals come amid fears English state sector is catching upPrivate schools want to opt out of GCSE exams because state schools in England are catching up with their results, the government's former social mobility tsar Katharine Birbalsingh has said.Commenting on moves by Latymer upper school in London and Bedales school in Hampshire to curb pupils taking GCSEs other than English and maths, Birbalsingh accused the schools of trying to hide their failures to achieve consistently high grades. Continue reading...
Country ageing at fastest rate on record and small rise in population due to inward migration, delayed survey showsScotland's population has grown at the lowest rate of any nation in the UK and is ageing at the fastest rate on record, according to the first data from last year's census.National Records of Scotland (NRS) estimated the country's total population was 5,436,600 last year. Its increase of 141,220, or 2.7%, was driven entirely by inward migration. Continue reading...
Publishing figures defend Stranger Things star's book, Nineteen Steps, after this week's publication ignites criticism on social mediaThe publication of Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown's debut novel has reignited a debate over ghostwritten celebrity books.Brown's Nineteen Steps, inspired by her grandmother's experience of the 1943 Bethnal Green tube disaster, was ghostwritten by author Kathleen McGurl and published on Tuesday. The cover of the book features only Brown's name. Continue reading...
Nearly 1 million children denied education, along with many more across eight countries in central and west Africa, new report warnsA quarter of schools are now closed in Burkina Faso after a sharp rise in fighting between militants and the government, according to a new report that warns of a looming education crisis in the region.The number of schools closed in the country rose by almost a third over the past year to 6,149, affecting close to 1 million students. Continue reading...
BCC president Martha Lane Fox to chair House of Lords meeting to help draft business manifesto for looming electionA new council that could challenge the CBI as the voice of British business is to hold its first meeting as it tries to set the agenda before the next general election.The British Chambers of Commerce's (BCC) Business Council will gather at the House of Lords for the meeting, chaired by Martha Lane Fox, president of the BCC, and discuss policy proposals to improve the UK economy. Continue reading...
Trip by foreign affairs committee blocked with no reason given, raising questions about country's partnership with EUA group of MEPs from the European parliament have been refused entry to Tunisia, raising questions about the controversial partnership on migration that Tunisia signed with the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen and the Italian leader, Giorgia Meloni, this summer.The foreign affairs committee, chaired by the German MEP Michael Gahler, was due to arrive in the country on Friday. Continue reading...
Announcement follows campaign by parents of Martha Mills, 13, who died in hospital after developing sepsisThe health secretary, Steve Barclay, has announced the government is committed to bringing in Martha's rule" in England, making it easier for patients and their families to get a second medical opinion if they believe their concerns are not being taken seriously by medical staff.It follows a campaign by the parents of Martha Mills, who died in 2021 after hospital doctors failed to admit her to intensive care. Martha, 13, died after developing sepsis while under the care of King's College hospital NHS foundation trust in south London. Continue reading...
Vast majority of women polled had experienced mental health problems in relation to their periodMillions of women and girls experience debilitating periods, yet nearly one-third never seek medical help, and more than half say their symptoms are not taken seriously, according to research.A survey of 3,000 women and girls for the Wellbeing of Women charity found that they are often dismissed as just having a period", despite experiencing severe pain, heavy bleeding and irregular cycles that can lead to mental health problems. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#6ER1F)
Rent cap limited to 3%, but landlords can go higher when drawing up new tenancy agreementA loophole in Scotland's temporary rent controls has seen private landlords raise rents for new tenancies more than anywhere else in the UK, data reveals.In an effort to tackle the housing crisis, the Scottish government this spring introduced a temporary rent cap limiting annual rises to 3% in most cases. But it allowed landlords to go higher if they were drawing up a new tenancy agreement. Continue reading...
by Aubrey Allegretti Senior political correspondent on (#6ER1G)
Some Conservatives insist policy is sacrosanct', while others are pushing for it to be overhauledMooted changes to the pensions triple lock have divided Conservative MPs. Some insist it is sacrosanct", while others are pushing for it to be overhauled at the next election.The future of a policy that had become a hallmark of recent Conservative governments appeared in doubt after Rishi Sunak three times refused to commit to retaining it at the next election. Continue reading...
Brazilian Indigenous leaders who are fighting a class action suit against BHP over a tailings dam collapse say they face similar struggles to First Nations Australians
by Peter Hannam Economics correspondent on (#6ER03)
Unemployment rate remains steady at 3.7% in a sign that the economy could avoid a hard landing as impact of 12 interest rate rises is felt by households
North Korean media report that Kim was briefed on space vehicles during his meetings in Russia, though no specific detail of any deal has emergedKim Jong-un invited President Vladimir Putin to visit North Korea during their meeting in Russia on Wednesday, Pyongyang's state media reported, amid warnings that Kim was poised to offer the Kremlin artillery shells and other munitions for the war in Ukraine.Kim told Putin that their closely watched meeting had brought bilateral ties to a new level, and expressed his willingness to foster stable, future-oriented relations for the next 100 years, news agency KCNA said. Continue reading...
Former PM says west is dragging its feet in support for Ukraine and calls for urgent supply of weaponry in Spectator columnBoris Johnson has attacked the government over its policy on Ukraine, saying it should urgently provide more weaponry requested by Kyiv and asking the west: What the hell are we waiting for?"The former prime minister, who formed a close relationship with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy after the outbreak of the war with Russia, called on the UK to provide howitzers - an artillery weapon - Storm Shadow cruise missiles and as much help as we can give them with drone technology". Continue reading...
World news | The Guardian