World news | The Guardian

Steven Croft apologises for church’s history on LGBTQ+ rights, but calls for ‘love and respect for those who take different views’The Church of England should allow same-sex marriage for congregation and clergy, the Bishop of Oxford has said, becoming the most senior figure to weigh in on the subject.The Rt Rev Dr Steven Croft also acknowledged the “acute pain and distress of LGBTQ+ people in the life of the church”, and apologised for his own views being “slow to change”. Continue reading...

David Montgomery says the publisher is in the early stages of a potential offerThe owner of the Scotsman and Yorkshire Post has revealed it is plotting a surprise takeover of much larger rival Reach, the parent company of the Mirror and Express titles and hundreds of regional newspapers including the Manchester Evening News.National World, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and run by the former boss of the Mirror newspaper group David Montgomery, has said that it is in the early stages of a potential offer for Reach. Continue reading...

From the assassination of its first PM in 1951, the country has suffered waves of brutal sectarian conflict and murdersLast month, Pakistan summoned the US ambassador in Islamabad for a dressing down after President Joe Biden described the south Asian country as “one of the most dangerous nations in the world”. Biden was apparently referring to Pakistan’s combination of nuclear weapons and apparent instability. He might have been talking about the threat faced by the country’s own politicians instead.On Thursday, the former prime minister Imran Khan was shot when his anti-government protest convoy came under attack in the east of the country, in what his aides said was a clear assassination attempt. The 70-year-old did not appear to be seriously injured but the incident underlines once again how politics in Pakistan is inseparable from violence. Continue reading...

John Atkinson ‘should have survived’, say relatives, as emergency services issue unreserved apologies after inquiry

Inquiry advice includes reviews of police funding and ambulance trusts’ responses to mass casualties, and medical staff based at venuesThe Manchester Arena inquiry chairman, Sir John Saunders, delivered a scathing report on the response of the emergency services to the terror attack at the arena in May 2017 and outlined key failures, recommending solutions. Here are some of his points for service improvements.Police funding Continue reading...

Longest serving prime minister, who is still facing corruption charges, is expected to lead far-right coalitionIsrael’s prime minister, Yair Lapid, has called Benjamin Netanyahu to offer his congratulations on the opposition leader’s election win following the conclusion of vote counting in this week’s election.Netanyahu, chair of the conservative Likud party and Israel’s longest serving prime minister, is expected to begin an unprecedented third term as premier after holding coalition negotiations with his religious and far-right allies on forming a government. Continue reading...

Lawyers on behalf of charity Detention Action say complaint also includes ‘serious threats to the safety of children’The autumn statement will be unveiled in two weeks today. It could be the most important fiscal announcement of Rishi Sunak’s premiership, and it will involve tax rises and spending cuts intended to fill a “black hole” in the government’s accounts worth an estimated £50bn. Here are some of the stories from today’s papers setting out what it might contain.Steven Swinford in the Times says the government is planning “to extend windfall taxes on oil and gas companies to raise an estimated £40bn over five years” in the autumn statement. He says:The prime minister and chancellor met yesterday afternoon to discuss items for the autumn budget, which are due to be submitted to the official forecaster at the end of the week.They want to maximise revenues from the windfall tax by increasing the rate from 25% to 30%, extending the levy until 2028 and expanding the scheme to cover electricity generators.Jason Groves in the Daily Mail says the government may suspend the triple lock for pensions next year, and raise pensions in line with earnings, not inflation. He says:Under one option considered by the Treasury, pensions would rise in line with average earnings rather than inflation next year, meaning an increase of 5.5%, instead of 10%.If approved, the state pension of £185.15 per week would rise to £195.35 rather than £203.70, costing pensioners £8.35 a week, or £434 a year.Natasha Clark and Jack Elsom in the Sun says the government is planning to freeze tax allowances for six years in the mini-budget. They say:Thousands more earners will be dragged into higher tax brackets, which won’t rise in line with inflation.Middle earners on £50,000 could be around £3,500 poorer, according to research from Blick Rothenberg.Arj Singh in the i says Rishi Sunak has “shelved Liz Truss’s promise to build the flagship Northern Powerhouse Rail”.The prime minister joined several Army personnel and the civil servant Stephen le Roux to raise money for the Royal British Legion’s (RBL) annual poppy appeal at about 8am this morning.Sunak was seen holding a tray full of poppies and talking to members of the public during the brief appearance to which no media was invited. Continue reading...

Agnieszka Kalinowska and Andrzej Latoszewski sentenced to 39 years for torturing boy to deathA woman and her partner have each been sentenced to 39 years in prison for the “horrific” murder of 15-year-old Sebastian Kalinowski.Agnieszka Kalinowska, 36, and Andrzej Latoszewski, 38, were convicted at Leeds crown court in July of murdering Kalinowska’s son at their home in Huddersfield in a prolonged campaign of physical abuse amounting to torture. Continue reading...

Ansbach court rules in favour of two cycling activists who had been fined €100 for breaching data protection regulationPeople who notify the police of parked cars blocking pavements and bike paths will in future be able to submit photographs as evidence of offences, a court in Bavaria has ruled.An administrative court in Ansbach has ruled in favour of two cycling activists who had been fined €100 (£87) each for breaching data protection regulation for photographing apparently illegally parked cars and emailing the images to the police. Continue reading...

Hurricane Lisa, which has battered Belize, formed at same time as Martin, now over Atlantic, for only third time since records beganTwo November hurricanes have simultaneously formed in the Atlantic Ocean for only the third time since records began.Hurricanes Lisa and Martin have brought an unusual amount of activity for this time of year, when hurricane season is usually nearly over. A third system in the Caribbean is also developing, reports the Washington Post. Continue reading...

Decision due soon, MPs told, as campaigners press for ‘full and fearless’ public inquiryMinisters may order a public inquiry into mental health care and patient deaths across England because of the number of scandals that are emerging involving poor treatment.Maria Caulfield, the minister for mental health, told MPs on Thursday that she and the health secretary, Steve Barclay, were considering whether to launch an inquiry because the same failings were occurring so often in so many different parts of the country. Continue reading...

Charities warn increase in monthly local travel pass will freeze out millions struggling with living costsGermany plans to replace its successful €9-a-month local public transport pass with a €49 version, a move that is drawing criticism from charities and social care groups who say the new price tag will freeze out millions of Germans suffering under the cost of living crisis.The €9 pass (equating to about £7.80) was introduced as an experiment over the summer in an effort to entice people to use public transport and help counter rising inflation. Continue reading...

Leader under pressure to commit to higher taxes for super-rich as Tory government prepares spending cutsThe Labour leader, Keir Starmer, is under pressure from campaigners, unions and his own MPs to set out plans for “wealth taxes” on the richest in society in order to support public services and help the poorest through the cost of living crisis.As the government prepares to cut spending to fill an estimated £35bn black hole in the nation’s finances, calls are growing for higher taxes on the super-rich, many of whom have seen their fortunes soar during the pandemic. Continue reading...

Corporation says episode of The Papers hosted by Martine Croxall failed to meet its editorial standardsThe BBC has found that an episode of The Papers on 23 October presented by Martine Croxall failed to meet its editorial standards on impartiality.The programme started about 90 minutes after Boris Johnson had pulled out of the Tory leadership race. Continue reading...

Move comes after ‘multi-step’ review by Canada’s national security and intelligence agenciesCanada has ordered China to immediately sell its holdings in three Canadian mining companies, as the need for investments in the extraction of critical minerals clashes with growing concerns over national security.On Wednesday Canada’s industry minister, François-Philippe Champagne, said three Chinese companies would be required to divest from junior mining companies. Continue reading...

Inquiry has found outcome for some victims may have been different but for ‘inadequacies’ in emergency response

Staff warn of short timetable to introduce changes, with final details of voter ID system yet to be releasedA series of major changes to UK elections including voter ID and an imminent revamp of Commons constituencies is leaving electoral administrators overwhelmed and risks bringing chaos to polling stations, officials and opposition parties have warned.Final Commons boundary changes, being announced next week for England and Scotland, will automatically take effect for any subsequent general election, requiring vast efforts to allocate officials and polling stations to the redrawn constituency maps. Continue reading...

Vladimir Putin says Moscow will rejoin grain export deal; US alleges North Korea covertly supplying Russia with a ‘significant’ number of artillery shells

Fraud, online shopping and banking among most commonly reported crimes, but ransomware ‘most destructive’, ASD says

Census data shows Sydney’s northern suburbs had highest WFH proportion, with lowest in regional areas such as Maryborough in Victoria and Taree in NSW

Supermarket chain says it has tried to keep prices down with households dining more at home rather than eating outHouseholds “feeling the squeeze” are shopping earlier for Christmas to spread the cost and have made a shift to dining at home rather than at restaurants, according to Sainsbury’s.The supermarket revealed an 8% fall in first-half profits as it said it had invested in keeping prices as low as possible, with food price inflation in its stores running at “comfortably less” than the 10%-plus reported for the wider market. Continue reading...

Some MPs says PM’s vociferous defence of Suella Braverman shows a failure to properly grasp the issue

Palestinian mission in UK welcomes statement, which appears to put end to review ordered by Liz Truss

Exclusive: Mohammed Ramadhan, who alleges he was tortured into confessing to deadly bombing, urges pontiff to act on visit to Gulf stateA former airport security guard who is on death row in Bahrain for a crime he alleges he was tortured into confessing to has urged Pope Francis to call for his release during the pontiff’s visit to the Gulf state.In a letter shared exclusively with the Guardian through the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird), Mohammed Ramadhan, who has been in prison for nine years, asked the pontiff to “ask the king of Bahrain to release me and reunite me with my family and children”. Continue reading...

In a solo appearance, the treasurer was bombarded with questions but did not rule out subsidies or changes to company taxJim Chalmers says the government intends to have a plan for Australia’s rising energy prices before Christmas, as he was peppered with questions about the cost of living by everyday Australians demanding concrete answers.The treasurer said he was not going to rule out subsidies or changes to how energy companies were taxed in case the situation did not improve, but the current focus remained on changes to regulations, including price caps. Continue reading...

Harbour Energy says higher levy and extended timeline will deter investment despite profits bonanzaThe UK’s largest oil and gas producer has warned Rishi Sunak against toughening up the windfall tax on North Sea operators as the prime minister finalises plans for a £40bn raid on the industry.Harbour Energy urged the government to “carefully consider” any mooted change to the energy profits levy, which was introduced earlier this year. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Met investigating two alleged sexual assaults at site, amid growing fears over safety of refugee facilitiesA teenage boy was allegedly raped by a man in his 30s at a hotel used to house refugees in east London, with another alleged sexual assault against a child taking place in the same facility.The Metropolitan police confirmed they were investigating both incidents, which come amid growing fears of chronic overcrowding and unsafe facilities for refugees that have put significant pressure on the home secretary, Suella Braverman.

Fuller pleads guilty to 16 offences relating to dead women in Kent mortuaries between 2007 and 2020The double murderer David Fuller has admitted sexually abusing 23 dead women in hospital mortuaries.The 68-year-old pleaded guilty at Croydon crown court on Thursday to 12 counts of sexual penetration of a corpse and four counts of possession of extreme pornography between 2007 and 2020. Continue reading...

Mull and Iona islanders want to replace ferries run by state-owned CalMac after years of ‘inefficiency’Scottish islanders who are fed up with the country’s crisis-hit ferry service are to investigate running their own ferries, claiming they have lost patience with government bungling.After years of service cancellations and break-downs, islanders on Mull and Iona want to replace the car ferries run by the state-owned company CalMac with their own community-run service, using three faster catamarans. Continue reading...

Committee backs watchdog’s findings that politician took cavalier approach to rules about paid advocacy

Immigration minister says legal action has begun on behalf of some detainees in Kent processing centreThe government has conceded that the asylum processing centre at Manston in Kent is not operating legally, after the immigration minister said legal action had begun on behalf of some of those held there.The centre is supposed to hold a maximum of 1,600 people, and each for just 24 hours while initial checks are made. However, up to 4,000 have been at the centre, some staying in terrible conditions for weeks. Continue reading...

Premier presses the case for the scheme despite a lack of commitment from Labor and the Nationals

Harcourts says city franchise’s rental property database has been accessed by an ‘unknown third party without authorisation’

Matthew Guy and Daniel Andrews focus on health announcements on second day on the campaign trail

Hundreds told to evacuate homes in Forbes as rising water threatens to cut off properties and strand residents

Panel of Sedgefield voters, discussing UK politics for the Guardian, say Keir Starmer is ‘not making a case for himself’

In today’s newsletter: The former prime minister is close to winning office less than 18 months after losing it, in Israel’s fifth election in four years. This is how he pulled it offGood morning. When Benjamin Netanyahu lost power last June, he insisted he would be back. “With God’s help,” he said in a valedictory speech, “that will happen much sooner than you think.” 16 months later, he looks all but certain to be prime minister of Israel again.The count of the votes in the country’s fifth election in four years will not be completed until later today, and coalition talks could take weeks to complete. But by the tally so far, Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party is the largest group in the Knesset – and the broad coalition formed to topple him last year looks likely to be thrown into opposition.Asylum | The Home Office abandoned asylum seekers from the Manston immigration centre in central London without accommodation or warm clothing, the Guardian can reveal. Amid acute overcrowding at Manston, charity volunteers said 11 people were left at Victoria station on Tuesday evening with nowhere to stay.Interest rates | Mortgage rates are expected to jump on Thursday in response to the largest increase in the Bank of England’s base rate since 1989, as the central bank tries to bring down inflation. The base interest rate is expected to go up by 0.75 percentage points to 3%.Poverty | The United Nations’ poverty envoy has warned Rishi Sunak that a new wave of austerity in this month’s budget could violate the UK’s international human rights obligations and increase hunger. Olivier de Schutter said he was “extremely troubled” by likely multibillion-pound spending cuts.Policing | Two Metropolitan police officers have been sentenced to three months’ imprisonment after sharing racist, homophobic, misogynistic and ableist messages in a WhatsApp group with Wayne Couzens before he murdered Sarah Everard. The two men were bailed ahead of an appeal.Media | Eric Allison, who became the Guardian’s prison correspondent aged 60 after spending much of his life in jail, has died aged 79. Former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said Allison “cast a steady light on a world successive governments would rather were kept in the dark”. Continue reading...

Jake Gilbert, 11, has been reunited with his rescuers a week after he nearly drowned when sucked into flooded drain in Altona Meadows

Ed Husic says industry is ‘completely tone deaf’ to appeals on prices and he’s ‘considering a wide range of interventions’

Former director of debt management compared proposal to so-called Dallas Buyers Club ‘speculative invoicing’ saga

Mars to trial No Bounty tubs this Christmas after 40% of consumers felt the fabled ‘taste of paradise’ tasted like hellWith its creamy coconut centre, a Bounty bar claims to taste of paradise, but it seems one person’s heaven really is another’s hell: Mars has decided to trial a “No Bounty” tub of Celebrations this Christmas after its consumer research confirmed their status as the least popular sweet.The experiment comes after nearly 40% of those polled told the company the Bounty should be permanently axed from the Celebrations line up, where it struggles to compete with the star power of “all-time favourite” Maltesers. Continue reading...

Researchers found not much has changed since 1969, with many saying their accents had been mocked or criticised at workThe problem of “accent bias” has not gone away in the UK, according to research that says many people with working-class or regional English accents fear their careers might suffer because of how they speak.Researchers who surveyed thousands of Britons found that young people from the north of England and the Midlands were much more likely to be concerned that their accent would count against them, compared with people from the south of England (other than London). Continue reading...

Energy costs, staff pay rises and inflation have left schools unable to pay for repairs, mental health services and tripsSecondary school heads across England are warning MPs of cuts to mental health provision, school trips and essential building repairs because rising costs and energy bills are wrecking their budgets.Ahead of the government’s autumn statement on 17 November, headteachers are telling local MPs and councillors about their struggles to adjust their budgets to cover unexpected costs of hundreds of thousands of pounds in higher pay and bills. Continue reading...

Activists fear for their safety after limited UK riposte to assault on demonstrator outside Chinese consulateHong Kong migrants who fled repression by China said they fear for their safety and are calling on the UK government to take a bolder stance after a pro-democracy protester was beaten in the grounds of a Chinese consulate two weeks ago.The assault in Manchester drew swift condemnation from activists and politicians across the Commons as videos circulated showing a senior Chinese diplomat forcefully grabbing a pro-democracy protester’s hair before the protester was wrestled to the ground and beaten by a group of men. Continue reading...

Scholz’s coalition government seems uncertain about what sort of relationship it wants with BeijingRussia’s war in Ukraine has woken Germany up to the risk of having an economy that is too reliant on raw materials provided by an autocratic strongman. But as the Germany chancellor, Olaf Scholz, heads to Beijing at the end of this week, there are questions as to whether he would rather leave lessons from the recent past at home in Berlin.Scholz is the first representative of a liberal democracy to be granted a state visit to China since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan in 2019, and will be the first major political leader to meet Xi Jinping since the Chinese president consolidated his power with a shake-up at the top of the Communist party. Continue reading...

Criticism of Suella Braverman is mounting, with the home secretary under fire over her handling of an immigration centre in Kent. The Guardian’s John Harris is joined by the former Conservative MP and justice secretary, David Gauke, and economist Miatta Fahnbulleh, to look at what this says about Rishi Sunak’s political judgment, and the Conservatives’ immigration policy Continue reading...

Cooke Aquaculture, which has a history of environmental controversies, acquired Tassal after shareholders backed billion-dollar deal

Tax Office finds more than half major mining, energy and water companies paid nothing in 2020-21, a three-year high

New York attorney general’s office says CBS executives conspired with a Los Angeles police captain to conceal sexual assault allegations against MoonvesCBS and its former president, Leslie Moonves, will pay $30.5m as part of an agreement with the New York attorney general’s office, which says the network’s executives conspired with a Los Angeles police captain to conceal sexual assault allegations against Moonves.Under the deal announced Wednesday by the attorney general, Letitia James, the broadcast giant is required to pay $22m to shareholders and another $6m for sexual harassment and assault programs. Continue reading...

Intercontinental ballistic missile is believed to have suffered in-flight malfunction, says Seoul, as Japan PM criticises ‘outrageous’ launchNorth Korea’s launch of a suspected new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) may have been a failure, military chiefs in South Korea have said. The missile was one of three fired on Thursday morning.The ICBM was fired from the suburbs of Pyongyang but then appeared to have failed during normal flight after the separation of the propellant and warhead sections, defence sources told multiple South Korean media outlets. Continue reading...