World news | The Guardian

The mood in the PM’s Norfolk constituency is sombre as the Tory leader is seen to have no credibility though some fear more turmoilThe historic town of Downham Market in Liz Truss’s South West Norfolk constituency should be a personal bulwark in political crisis and economic turmoil. This weekend, confidence in the prime minister in her own Conservative heartland was ebbing away.While officials in Downing Street contemplate whether Truss is now in her last days of office and MPs plot possible succession, the verdict on her record among the market stalls, coffee bars and busy shopping streets of the market town was harsh. Continue reading...

US president questioned country’s nuclear weapons safety protocols sparking outrage in IslamabadPakistan on Saturday summoned the US ambassador for an explanation after President Joe Biden described the south Asian country as “one of the most dangerous nations in the world” and questioned its nuclear weapons safety protocols.Biden made the apparently off-the-cuff remark late on Thursday while talking about US foreign policy during a private Democratic party fundraiser in California, but the White House later published a transcript of his comments, which provoked outrage in Pakistan. Continue reading...

As newly mobilised men return from the front in coffins, critics complain of aggressive recruiting, low morale and poor training• Russia-Ukraine war latest – live blogAndrei Nikiforov, a lawyer from St Petersburg, was one of the hundreds of thousands of Russians mobilised since last month to hold the frontlines in his country’s faltering war in Ukraine.On 25 September he received his call-up papers. By 7 October, just two weeks later, he was dead. Continue reading...

Constitutional changes likely to enshrine leader as ‘core’ of ruling Communist partyThe highest level meeting of China’s ruling Communist party this week is likely to include constitutional changes to further cement the power of the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, party officials have confirmed.Xi is expected to regain his position as leader of the CCP and its military commission at the week-long conference, setting the stage for retaining the presidency next year, after abolishing term limits in 2018. Continue reading...

Chair of Commons defence committee had whip withdrawn for failing to turn up for a confidence voteA senior Conservative MP has had the whip restored after being suspended from the party for missing a confidence vote in the summer.Tobias Ellwood, chair of the Commons defence select committee, had the whip withdrawn after failing to vote for Boris Johnson’s government in a confidence vote in July. Continue reading...

Dane Partridge, 34, died from injuries sustained during a Russian attack in LuhanskDane Partridge, a 34-year-old man from Idaho who fought as a volunteer soldier in Ukraine, died on Tuesday from injuries sustained during a Russian attack in Luhansk.The Ukrainian government has recruited people with military experience to join the International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine. At least four other US citizens have been killed fighting in Ukraine, based on reports from families and the state department. Continue reading...

Victorian authorities warn flooded rivers yet to peak and prepare for one of the largest evacuation operations in the state’s history

Her MPs know that just as Boris Johnson shredded the image of Conservative integrity, she has done it for economic competence

Andrew Jones says Victoria Racing Club was ‘entitled’ to protect its property from floods

Autonomous Bougainville government president accuses Australia of destabilising its right to self-determination

In new memoir, former Israeli PM describes efforts to turn US president against Palestinian leader AbbasBenjamin Netanyahu used maps of Hezbollah missile sites and intelligence gained from a Mossad raid in Tehran to make sure Donald Trump backed Israel in Middle East peace talks and pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, the former Israeli prime minister writes in a new memoir.But in unconventional scenes similar to those in countless books of reportage and Trump tell-alls, Netanyahu also says that to sway Trump from his desire to pursue peace between Israel and the Palestinians and to scotch his positive first impression of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, the Israelis deployed golfing metaphors and maps of New York City. Continue reading...

Findings represent big increase on previous figures and upend perception of naturism as ‘something old retirees do’Temperatures may be falling – and there is now a nip in the air – but enthusiasm for getting naked is rising at an unprecedented rate in the UK.The biggest survey ever into naturism has found 14% of people now describe themselves as naturists or nudists: an estimated 6.75 million – or one in seven people. Continue reading...

Project hit by fall in labour supply and rise in costs, and investigation launched over low visitor numbersFor some, the whole project was supposed to be a celebration of Britain’s departure from the EU. Which means there is more than a little irony in the fact a main concern of the “festival of Brexit” organisers was the impact of leaving itself.Disruption to the supply of workers and materials, as well as increased costs, emerged as one of the risks overshadowing the project, according to records. Continue reading...

Kwarteng’s replacement is warned of inflation impact, crumbling services and financial ‘black hole’ that he has two weeks to fillLiz Truss’s new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, may still have to draw up spending cuts worth up to £40bn to convince markets the government can balance the books, experts warned after Friday’s humiliating U-turn.Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Truss dropped a heavy hint of austerity to come, saying: “Our public sector will become more efficient, to deliver world-class services for the British people, and spending will grow less rapidly than previously planned.” Continue reading...

Exiled Kurdish forces in Iraq feel abandoned by west and say they need weapons like in UkrainePicking through a pile of twisted metal, Rebaz, a Kurdish Iranian fighter, stooped to cradle a jagged chrome piece that was dug from the ruins of his base. “This was part of a Fateh missile,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest that the Iranians have in their arsenal. It’s from the day they tried to wipe us out.”The heap included other wreckage – of rockets and kamikaze drones that had devastated this small outpost, just east of Erbil in northern Iraq, a fortnight ago. Since then, jittery guards had looked from the ruins towards the east, from where more than two dozen ballistic missiles and another dozen kamikaze drones blazed from a blue sky a fortnight ago. Continue reading...

Turmoil in Tory party takes centre stage after unconvincing moves by an unrepentant Truss to fix her policy crisisHow long Liz Truss can last as prime minister dominated the UK front pages on Saturday, after the sacking of her chancellor and a pledge to “see through” what she had promised failed to assuage either the markets or her own MPs.The Guardian calls it “a day of chaos”, as Kwasi Kwarteng lasts just 38 days in office and Truss is forced into a “humiliating” U-turn on a planned cut in corporation tax. It notes Truss’s press conference consisted of “eight minutes, four questions and no apology”. Continue reading...

MyDeal chief executive apologises and says incident is being investigated

Russian submarine seen off French coast and being escorted by French navy; Vladimir Putin says ‘no need’ for talks with Joe Biden

Peter Koenig said he pushed man into Adelaide abattoir’s meat grinder, fellow murder accused Gregory Lee Roser told Brisbane supreme court

Cuts by world’s biggest petrol producers will work against other governments’ efforts to tame inflation by releasing fuel stocks

PM’s move to replace chancellor and commit to raising corporation tax fails to placate markets or Tory MPsLiz Truss is desperately clinging to her premiership after she sacked her chancellor and ripped up the mini-budget but failed to calm the financial markets or furious Conservative MPs.In a humiliating reversal, the prime minister backed down on plans to scrap an £18bn rise in corporation tax and replaced Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor with Jeremy Hunt. Continue reading...

George and Alfred Degiorgio both given 40-year sentences for killing of Maltese journalist in 2017 car bombingTwo brothers charged with the car-bomb assassination of the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia have both been sentenced to 40 years in prison, after dramatically pleading guilty to her murder on the first day of their trial.Caruana Galizia, who had investigated political corruption in the European Union’s smallest member state, died in an explosion that destroyed her car as she drove away from home on 16 October 2017. Continue reading...

Government withdraws letter to woman, who is 37 weeks pregnant, saying that it was sent by mistakeThe Home Office has apologised to a pregnant rape survivor from Eritrea who was sent a letter threatening her with forced removal to Rwanda, saying it was sent by mistake.Guardian and ITV News revealed on Thursday that the woman was distraught after receiving the Home Office letter, which has now been withdrawn. Continue reading...

Witnesses describe Higgins as ‘broken’ after the alleged rape in March 2019, to which Bruce Lehrmann has pleaded not guiltyIn her final memory before blacking out, Brittany Higgins paused for a moment of reflection, she told those closest to her.From a window perched high among parliament’s labyrinthine network of office suites and hallways, she looked out over the prime minister’s courtyard, quiet in the early morning darkness of 23 March 2019. Continue reading...

CQC ‘reviewing evidence’ after footage shows 88-year-old Ann King’s treatment at Reigate Grange

Scottish actor who graduated from the alternative comedy scene to become a major performer known for taking on complex and difficult roles• Peter Bradshaw on Robbie ColtraneRobbie Coltrane, whose acting career spanned everything from Bond films to Cracker to Harry Potter, has died aged 72.The news was confirmed by his agent on Friday. Continue reading...

Former foreign secretary once seen as yesterday’s man is now in best position to influence prime ministerAs political resurrections go, there are few more curious than the appointment of Jeremy Hunt as chancellor – a remainer whose career seemed to be going backwards only a few short weeks ago.When the instinct of most Tory MPs is to run a mile from No 10, Hunt accepted the invitation from the desperate Liz Truss to go in the opposite direction. He has turned down unenviable cabinet job offers before – rejecting the post of defence secretary when offered by Boris Johnson, after losing the Tory leadership race to Johnson in 2019. Continue reading...

The Subtraction director had his passport confiscated by Iranian authorities and was prevented from boarding his flight to the UK, allegedly with no reason givenIranian film-maker Mani Haghighi has been banned from leaving the country and had his passport confiscated after attempting to travel to London, where his latest film Subtraction is screening at the London film festival.In a video statement, Haghighi said: “I was prevented by the Iranian authorities from boarding my flight to London on Friday. They gave me no reasonable explanation for this utterly rude behaviour.” Continue reading...

Prime minister took only four questions but showed lack of contrition in lightning fast appearance that will not have secured goodwill

Draft guidelines for England state protocols can be initiated in relation to treatments obtained privatelyYoung transgender people could be referred to safeguarding agencies if they access puberty blockers and hormone therapies on the private market after being told by a public health professional they should not be taking them, new draft guidelines from England’s National Health Service suggest.If NHS professionals decide a patient should not be taking puberty blockers or hormone treatments obtained privately, they can advise the patient’s primary care doctor to initiate “safeguarding protocols”, according to draft guidelines seen by the Reuters news agency. Continue reading...

PM makes second climbdown and sacks chancellor after package of unfunded tax cuts sent the pound tumbling

Memorial to German airman shot down in Spanish civil war had been looked after by Spanish ace who killed himA group that celebrates the republican pilots who fought fascism in the skies over Spain has condemned the vandalism of a memorial stone to a German airman that was looked after by an unlikely visitor – the Spanish ace who killed him.Friedrich Windemuth, a member of the notorious Condor Legion sent by Hitler to aid Franco during the Spanish civil war, died after being shot down over northern Catalonia by the Spanish pilot José Falcó in February 1939. Continue reading...

Former leadership contender is back in cabinet as PM tries to reach out to other sections of Tory partyJeremy Hunt has been appointed as Liz Truss’s new chancellor, in a stunning reversal of political fortune and a sign that the beleaguered prime minister wants to reach out to other sections of the Conservative party.Hunt, the former foreign secretary and health secretary, who has twice tried unsuccessfully to become Conservative leader, was named chancellor after Kwasi Kwarteng, in the job for just over five weeks, was sacked by Truss ahead of another U-turn over tax cuts. Continue reading...

While some insist the unrest will eventually peter out, others warn there is something more fundamental at playA shaken Iranian political elite is struggling with whether to frame the protests shaking the country as primarily the product of a covert foreign intelligence conspiracy, or instead a dangerous warning that the values of the Islamic Revolution have lost sway over a new generation infected by a western controlled internet, analysts say.The debate, in which there are many shades of grey, matters since it determines whether the response should be a security crackdown coupled with retribution against the outside forces of disruption or some kind of dialogue with the largely leaderless youth. Continue reading...

Competition watchdog to rule on monopoly of radio system used by police, fire and ambulance services amid concern over profitsThe UK competition watchdog is to introduce price controls on how much Motorola can charge the government for running the communication network used by police, fire and other emergency services, after finding it will make £1.1bn in excess profits by 2026.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said a lack of competition meant the US company, which runs the Airwave radio network that allows emergency services to communicate securely, is making £160m in excess profits annually. Continue reading...

The decision to end the relationship with West and clothing brand Yeezy predates recent controversies and array of antisemitic commentsThe US bank JP Morgan Chase has ended its relationship with Kanye West and his clothing brand Yeezy Inc – although the decision predates the rapper and designer’s recent controversies in which he wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt and shared racist conspiracy theories in an unaired interview.Candace Owens, the conservative US commentator whom West has associated with in recent years, shared a letter from the bank, dated 20 September, on Twitter. Continue reading...

Chancellor cuts short International Monetary Fund meetings after insisting his job is safe, as Liz Truss appears to take reins on corporation tax cutKwasi Kwarteng has dramatically cut short his visit to the International Monetary Fund, flying home early from Washington in response to the mounting political crisis over his tax-cutting budget.Adding to signs that the government is preparing to announce a U-turn over its plan to scrap a rise in corporation tax, the chancellor left the US capital a day earlier than planned. Continue reading...

Confidant of Higgins tells court he told an adviser about alleged rape by Bruce Lehrmann, with her permission. Lehrmann denies the charge

Family friends and colleagues testify that Higgins’s demeanour changed drastically after the night she alleges she was raped by Bruce Lehrmann, who denies the charge

Chancellor does not rule out increasing corporation tax when asked about whether government will perform U-turnThe Home Office has taken the modern slavery brief away from the minister responsible for safeguarding and classed it as an “illegal immigration and asylum” issue, updated online ministerial profiles show.The move is seen as a clear sign that the department is doubling down on Suella Braverman’s suggestion that people are “gaming” the modern slavery system and that victims of the crime are no longer being prioritised.The largest single group of modern slavery victims under the referral system last year were British children – including those who were exploited through county lines. The evidence shows the majority of exploitation takes place in the UK rather than across borders.The government should be treating this as an enforcement and safeguarding issue and taking stronger action against the crime of modern slavery wherever it takes place. Continue reading...

Eritrean woman, 28, in acute distress having spent most of her life in search of safetyA heavily pregnant rape survivor from Eritrea has been threatened with forced removal to Rwanda by the Home Office.Human rights campaigners say it is the “most egregious” case they have come across so far in the government’s scheme to outsource the processing of UK asylum claims to the east African country. Continue reading...

Reversing key plank of her leadership pitch would be far bigger humiliation for Liz Truss than 45p rate U-turnThe clamour among Conservative MPs for a third U-turn by Liz Truss started the same as the others: one MP begins as an outrider, backed by some party veterans or ex-cabinet ministers, and the question catches alight across broadcasters who ask every MP they see. Soon enough, it is received wisdom.Most MPs who are squeamish about deposing their third prime minister had hoped that they would see change in the markets and contrition from No 10 and 11 after the U-turn on the 45p rate. Over the course of the past week, it has been clear to them that will not happen. Continue reading...

With speculation mounting of another mini-budget U-turn, we look at what the PM and her allies said about her policyLiz Truss put adherence to principle at the heart of her bid for the leadership of the Conservative party, often using her support for cutting corporation tax to illustrate a wider preference for letting people and businesses keep more of their own money.However, now the policy has been mooted as one of those that could be chopped to help fill a £65bn black hole of unfunded revenue loss in the mini-budget. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Coroner suspects ‘undercount’ as a decade of suicide data is released to the public

UN votes to condemn Russia’s annexation of parts of Ukraine; Nato allies pledge to deliver more air defence systems to Kyiv Continue reading...

German chancellor’s language hardens after Russian strikes on major Ukrainian cities• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updatesThe German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has accused Vladimir Putin of waging “a crusade against our way of life”, in a shift of rhetoric days after heavy Russian missile strikes hit major Ukrainian cities.“They consider their war against Ukraine to be part of a larger crusade,” Scholz said in a video address to a summit of European socialist, liberal and green politicians and thinkers in Berlin. Continue reading...

Latest data shows health service coming under increased pressure even before winter beginsThe number of people waiting for an appointment with the NHS in England has topped 7 million for the first time in August.Other unwelcome records were recorded elsewhere, with 56.9% of patients attending major A&Es in September were seen within four hours, a record low. Continue reading...

Eliza Doolittle’s sparkling dress is one of 100 items that celebrate ‘transformative power’ of musicalsWeighed down by diamante, rhinestones, pearls, crystal beads, sequins and long, pale gold bullion fringe, it is a miracle that Julie Andrews ever managed to navigate the stairs she descended at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane while singing I Could Have Danced All Night.The dress she wore when playing Eliza Doolittle in the 1958 production of My Fair Lady won acclaim for its designer, the legendary Cecil Beaton. The show ran in London for five and a half years, and was thought to be the most expensive then staged in the West End. Continue reading...

Peak body says assurances given and must be upheld or trust with rural Australia ‘will be broken’

Energy watchdog will urge households to save energy ‘where possible’The UK’s energy regulator will advise households to reduce their gas and electricity use “where possible” after the government blocked a state-led information campaign amid fears over potential blackouts this winter.Ofgem’s chief executive, Jonathan Brearley, is expected to announce the regulator’s public information campaign on Thursday, when he will tell the Energy UK conference “this isn’t the time for complacency” as energy costs continue to rise. Continue reading...