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This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage hereThe Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, said on Friday that very difficult questions" would need to be answered before the EU could start membership talks with Ukraine.EU countries are due to decide in December whether to allow Ukraine to begin accession negotiations, which would require the unanimous backing of all 27 members. Diplomats have said Hungary may be an obstacle. Continue reading...

Peace campaigner served 11 prison sentences over activism against nuclear disarmament and conflictPat Arrowsmith - the activist and co-founder of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) - has died at the age of 93.She was born to a middle-class family in Leamington Spa on 2 March 1930 and went on to study at Cheltenham Ladies College and the University of Cambridge. Her work as a peace campaigner began with protesting against the Vietnam war, before co-founding CND in 1958. Continue reading...

Escalating violence comes at a time when the economy is in tatters and the caretaker government powerlessThe scenes of horror pictured on Friday have become all too familiar in Pakistan. This time it was a twin attack. A procession to mark the birthday of the prophet Muhammad and a police station were both targeted by suicide bombers, killing almost 60 people and injuring hundreds more.No one has yet claimed responsibility, but suspicion among officials and analysts was directed towards Islamic State - Khorasan (IS-K), which has recently regrouped and revived its militant activities in Pakistan to devastating effect, and with little sign of being contained. Alongside a recent resurgence of its rival, the Pakistan Taliban, which has been behind dozens of deadly attacks over the past few months, the country's security situation continues to deteriorate to its worst in years. Continue reading...

Visitors caught trying to take pieces as crowd flock to site, while National Trust hope tree might regrow from stumpMembers of the public have been urged not to try to take branches from the felled Sycamore Gap tree as souvenirs. Some visitors have been caught by police attempting to take pieces of the tree, which belongs to the National Trust, from inside the police cordon.Visitors have flocked to the site to say goodbye to the landmark, which stood for more than 300 years in a small valley alongside Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland before being found chopped down on Thursday morning. Continue reading...

Sky reports Sunak is considering removing the winter fuel allowance - worth between 250 and 600 this winter - from most pensionersUK sanctions have been imposed on Russian officials involved in sham" elections in annexed Ukrainian territory, the Foreign Office has announced.Labour is currently on course to win a majority of 90 in a general election, according to polling published by the Times.Rishi Sunak's projected 196-seat tally would be the worst recorded by any Conservative leader since William Hague's 166 in 2001. Labour's 372 seats would give Sir Keir Starmer a comfortable working majority of 90, the party's biggest since 2001.Highlighting the Tories' vulnerabilities in their traditional southern heartlands, the Liberal Democrats would be returned with 36 seats and 10.8 per cent of the vote, a marked improvement on the 15 seats they hold at present. Continue reading...

Rights groups hope to bring end to discrimination they say has gone unaddressed by successive governmentsFrance must end the widespread racial profiling of people of black and north African heritage who are routinely stopped by police and asked to show their identity papers with no explanation, a lawyer for rights groups has argued at a historic court hearing in Paris.In the first class action of its kind against the French state, six French and international organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Justice Initiative, want French authorities to be found at fault for failing to prevent the widespread use of ethnic profiling. Continue reading...

Charity ADHD UK says NHS's failure to act before would be devastating for those living with the conditionDoctors in England have been told not to prescribe ADHD drugs to new patients because of a national shortage, with charities warning the supply problems are devastating for those living with the condition.According to a national patient safety alert from the Department of Health and Social Care, the shortages are down to a combination of manufacturing issues and an increased global demand, and could last until the end of the year. Continue reading...

Homes and land purchased to make way for line that now appears to be in doubt, as Rishi Sunak refuses to commit to itAlmost 600m of public money has already been spent buying up land and properties for HS2 in the north of England, despite uncertainty that the train line will ever get beyond Birmingham.Rishi Sunak repeatedly refused to commit to bringing HS2 to Manchester on Thursday, amid concerns that the project's cost could exceed 100bn, three times the original estimate. Continue reading...

While some living in the path of the planned railway sold up, others have stayed put, unsure when or even if they will be forced out

Rutherglen and Hamilton West is a must-win seat for Keir Starmer - as it is for an SNP fighting to stay in powerAs scores of Labour activists queued up for Keir Starmer's final rallying speech before next week's Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection, another queue was forming at the church next door.Inside the church hall in Burnbank, two volunteers, Alex Gilmour and Anne Paul, were preparing trays of cheese- and ham-filled rolls and cups of tea for about 80 local people who rely on its daily free breakfasts, its food bank and its council-funded money advice service. Continue reading...

Death of longest-serving female US senator, who was due to retire at end of her term next year, has weighty political implicationsDianne Feinstein, the oldest serving member of the US Senate who blazed a trail for women in American politics, has died. She was 90.Sadly, Senator Feinstein passed away last night at her home in Washington DC," her chief of staff, James Sauls, said in a statement on Friday. Her passing is a great loss for so many, from those who loved and cared for her to the people of California that she dedicated her life to serving." Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story hereAs expected, socialist MP Oscar Puente did not mince his words - or as the Spanish idiom has it, there are no hairs on his tongue.Mr Feijoo, you entered this chamber as leader of the opposition, and as the newspapers have it, you'll leave it having become the leader of the opposition. But you're not just that. You're the leader of the opposition and a scourge! A scourge of who? Sanchez - who else could it be - the font of all evil!" Continue reading...

Freezing winter could push average bills higher under UK government's price cap, says forecastHousehold energy bills could climb to an average of almost 1,900 a year in the coldest months of the year under the UK government's energy price cap, according to a leading forecaster.The energy price cap is expected to climb from the 1,834-a-year level for a typical home set to take effect from Sunday to 1,898 when the cap is next updated for the months from January to March, say analysts at Cornwall Insight, adding to the burden of the cost of living crisis. Continue reading...

Feijoo's defeat had been expected and gives acting PM Pedro Sanchez chance to try to form governmentSpain's acting prime minister, the socialist leader Pedro Sanchez, has a fresh, if fraught, shot at returning to power after his conservative rival Alberto Nunez Feijoo failed in his attempt to take office in an ill-tempered investiture debate that followed July's inconclusive general election.Although Feijoo's People's party (PP) finished first in the snap general election, it failed to win enough votes to form a government, taking 137 seats in Spain's 350-seat congress and scoring a far less emphatic win over the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' party (PSOE) than had been expected. Continue reading...

Paris public prosecutor's office examining ski resort deal but Russian businessman Nikolai Sarkisov denies personal involvementThe Paris public prosecutor's office is investigating financial transactions allegedly involving the French billionaire Bernard Arnault and a Russian businessman.The prosecutors are investigating transactions involving Arnault, whose ownership of the luxury goods group LVMH has made him the world's second richest person after Elon Musk, and Nikolai Sarkisov, Reuters reported, citing a statement from the Paris prosecutor's office. Sarkisov's brother, Sergei, founded the Russian insurance company Reso-Garantia. Continue reading...

Action by railway drivers in England and London Underground workers will halt and delay many servicesA week of disruption for rail passengers has begun, with a mix of strikes and overtime bans by train drivers and tube workers set to halt and delay many services until next Friday.Virtually no trains will run in England on Saturday and Wednesday, when members of the Aslef union strike on national rail, targeting the start and end of the Conservative party conference in Manchester. Continue reading...

Suicide bombing kills at least 54 at parade to mark prophet's birthday, while further five die in attack at police compoundAt least 59 people have died in bomb attacks on two mosques in Pakistan as the country held a public holiday to celebrate the prophet Muhammad's birthday.In the most serious incident, a suicide bomber killed at least 54 people who were gathering for a parade near a mosque to mark the prophet's birthday in restive Balochistan province. Continue reading...

Demonstrations in response to climate of fear' on the roads as Sunak is reportedly announcing plan for motorists'People are holding coordinated protests across UK towns and cities this weekend against what they call a climate of fear" on the roads, and an epidemic" of careless and dangerous driving that is curbing children's freedoms and putting lives at risk.The protests come amid reports that Rishi Sunak will announce a so-called plan for motorists" at the Tory conference on Monday, which will limit the number of 20mph speed restrictions and favour drivers over bus passengers. Continue reading...

Force apologises to victims, who included a traumatised woman, for Sgt Simon Lythgoe's inexcusable' behaviourA police officer and power-lifting champion has been dismissed after using extreme" force against two detainees, including a traumatised woman.Hampshire constabulary described the actions of Sgt Simon Lythgoe, who was based on the Isle of Wight, as inexcusable and apologised to his victims. Continue reading...

Joey the tortoise, from Cornwall, is recovering after surgery to remove 150g growthJoey, an 82-year-old tortoise in Cornwall, is recovering from surgery after the removal of a bladder stone the size of a cricket ball.Two veterinary surgeons had to cut through Joey's shell to remove the growth, which at 150g was almost three times the weight of a tennis ball. Continue reading...

Prosecutors had written to hospital this year about medical student's actions and images found on phoneDutch authorities had rung alarm bells about the psychotic behaviour" of a medical student suspected of a shooting and arson rampage through Rotterdam in which three people were killed, his hospital boss said on Friday.The Public Prosecution Service had written earlier in the year to the Erasmus university hospital about the student suspected of shooting dead his neighbour, her 14-year-old daughter, and a teacher at the hospital. Continue reading...

Thessaly, one of Greece's breadbaskets, has been left devastated with crops ruined and animals deadFour years ago, Poppy Georgiou returned to the village in north-east Pelion where she grew up in the hope of creating a better life among the apple and chestnut orchards. She had studied in Thessaloniki, but it had been difficult to get by, and she decided to move back to Pouri to work alongside her family and community on the mountain in Thessaly that looms above the Aegean.But that future, along with many others, is in jeopardy. The 28-year-old, who cultivates apples, chestnuts, cherries and olives across 50 acres of land with her husband and parents, found hope hard to find after the Thessaly was battered by Storm Daniel at the beginning of the month, devastating the agricultural region that is one of Greece's breadbaskets". Continue reading...

Firm raises 1bn in investment - half from Qatar's sovereign wealth fund - to improve network over five yearsSevern Trent is to increase customers' bills by almost 37% by the end of the decade and has raised 1bn in investment - half from Qatar's sovereign wealth fund - to pay for a multibillion investment plan to improve its water network over the next five years.The company, which has 4.2 million customers, said the average annual household bill will rise from 379 in 2024-2025 to 518 in 2029-2030. Continue reading...

The foreign minister claims public interest immunity over Dfat advice. This blog is now closed

Timor Leste's president alludes to 2004 spying scandal as he brushes off concerns about new strategic partnership with China

Teenager to appear at youth court charged over rush-hour killing of schoolgirl in south LondonA 17-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of 15-year-old Elianne Andam in Croydon, south London.The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will appear at youth court, sitting at Croydon magistrates court, on Friday. He has also been charged with possession of a knife. Continue reading...

Placating Conservatives in marginal seats, inflation in construction and a maze of bureaucracy have seen the cost balloon from 32bn to 71bnShould the enormous engineering feat of HS2 become Rishi Sunak's white elephant, these could be its expensive tusks.At what was once a staging post but now looks like the end of the line, Old Oak Common, two brand new tunnel boring machines are to be buried underground, unused, ready for action - a mere 40m of kit that may never now drill the route's last six miles east into central London. Continue reading...

Pro-China presidential candidate Mohamed Muizzu accuses incumbent Mohamed Solih of allowing traditional benefactor India too much influenceAs the archipelago of the Maldives goes to an election run-off on Saturday, it will not just be two presidential candidates on the ballot.This election is being pitched as a larger geopolitical battle between India and China, which over the past decade have been engaged in a tug-of-war to gain influence over the Maldives. Continue reading...

Immigration experts say home secretary's speech criticising global treaties related to refugees against guidance from her own departmentSuella Braverman's claim that increasing numbers of asylum seekers find refuge in the west because the threshold to qualify for asylum has been lowered does not apply in the UK under guidance in her own department, lawyers have said.In a controversial speech on Tuesday, the home secretary said that as case law has developed since the Refugee Convention 1951, what we have seen in practice, is an interpretive shift away from persecution', in favour of something more akin to a definition of discrimination'." Continue reading...

Exclusive: Sir John Leighton says galleries still need to broaden audience beyond Edinburgh middle classes and touristsScotland's national galleries, which house some of the country's greatest works of art, need to do far more to make themselves accessible and inclusive, their outgoing director general has said.Sir John Leighton, who is retiring in February after 17 years as head of the National Galleries in Scotland (NGS), said the organisation still has a long way to go" to broaden the audience beyond Edinburgh's middle classes and tourists. Continue reading...

Show celebrating Cecilia Gimenez, who achieved unwanted global fame, premieres in Las Vegas this weekendEleven years after a simple act of devotion in a remote church in north-east Spain unleashed a media storm, spawned countless memes and created an unlikely tourist phenomenon, the trials and triumphs of the amateur artist behind the Monkey Christ" restoration are being celebrated in an opera that premieres this week in Las Vegas.Cecilia Gimenez, now almost 93, achieved unwanted global fame in the summer of 2012 after attempting to restore a small fresco of the scourged and thorn-crowned Christ in the Santuario de Misericordia near her home town of Borja. Continue reading...

Exclusive: IfG says sums raised unlikely to be transformative' and there is little public appetiteCharging patients for using NHS services would be hugely expensive and complicated to implement and would not banish the health service's problems, a thinktank has found.Several senior Conservative politicians have proposed introducing fees for accessing NHS care and Rishi Sunak has previously backed 10 fines for people who miss a GP or hospital appointment. Continue reading...

The 4bn project was due to be finished by mid 2020s but delays mean it will not be able to head off current capacity crisisPlans for 20,000 additional prison places by the mid 2020s are not expected to be completed until 2030 due to planning delays.The 4bn programme has been hit by further problems this summer, a Whitehall source said, which means the new cells will not be available to head off the current capacity crisis. Continue reading...

Mark Dreyfus promises transparent' process to recruit for new federal merits review body, which will review decisions on migration, the NDIS and Centrelink

People with disabilities continue to experience high rates of violence and abuse, multiple forms of neglect, and sexual and financial exploitation', final report states

Commission has spent four and a half years investigating conditions for people with disabilities in schools, workplaces, jails, group homes, hospitals, and day programs

Police in north of England say teenager arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damageA 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage in connection with the felling of the 300-year-old Sycamore Gap tree in the north of England.Officers arrested the teenager amid an outpouring of sadness over the destruction of the landmark, which has been a feature of the site at Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland for hundreds of years. The boy is in custody and assisting officers with their inquiries, Northumbria police said on Thursday. Continue reading...

Syriza leader says it will be an honour' to take a break from politics for obligatory service, which he has to start by the beginning of 2024Just a few days after being elected the new leader of Greece's leftwing main opposition party, Stefanos Kasselakis has said he will take a brief break from politics - to join the military.Kasselakis, 35, said he plans to present himself soon" for military service, which is obligatory for all Greek men. Continue reading...

Martin Lewis and Citizens Advice among those telling PM poorer Britons must get help, as industry source calls idea unworkable'More than 140 organisations and individuals, including the consumer champion Martin Lewis, have told Rishi Sunak to make good on a promise to help Britain's least well-off households with a social tariff for their gas and electricity.The group has written to the prime minister reiterating calls to fulfil a government pledge to help vulnerable households with a discounted rate for energy bills before the last remaining support schemes come to an end in April. Continue reading...

Payouts rose by 5% after operating profits increased to 756m and pension advisory business was soldThe average income of Deloitte's more than 640 equity partners in the UK rose to 1.1m this year, despite a recent slowdown in spending and company deals.Deloitte UK said revenue grew 14% to 5.6bn in the year to May, as buoyant markets in the first six months of its financial year bolstered demand for audit and advisory work. It helped offset the increased caution" among more cash-strapped clients and a slowdown in merger and acquisition activity in the months that followed. Continue reading...

Thinktank calls for bold solutions to address high dropout rates and rise in part-time workingThe NHS has to train two GPs to produce one full-time family doctor because so many have started to work part-time, new research reveals.The finding helps explain why GP surgeries are still struggling to give patients appointments as quickly as they would like, despite growing numbers of doctors training to become a GP.One in eight nursing students in England do not complete their degrees.For every five students doing a nursing degree at university, the NHS only gets three full-time nurses.One in five newly qualified nurses working in hospitals or community settings quit within two years.The number of UK nurses joining the NHS fell by about a third in both 2020/21 and 2021/22 - a new and worrying dynamic". Continue reading...

Suspect, arrested in Peru, allegedly threatened schools after failing to sextort' nude photos from schoolchildrenA Peruvian man was arrested in Peru for sending more than 150 fake bomb threats to US schools, airports and a synagogue.Eddie Manuel Nunez Santos, 33, was arrested by Peruvian officials on Tuesday in Lima, according to a press release from the justice department. Continue reading...

Republican House speaker says he will not take up Senate bill to keep government running despite his party's lack of an alternativeA government shutdown appeared all but inevitable as the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, dug in on Thursday, vowing he will not take up Senate legislation designed to keep the federal government fully running despite House Republicans' struggle to unite around an alternative.Congress is at an impasse just days before a disruptive federal shutdown that would halt paychecks for many of the federal government's roughly 2 million employees, as well as 2 million active-duty military troops and reservists, furlough many of those workers and curtail government services. Continue reading...

PM accuses Keir Starmer of stoking a class war' and Tories seek to portray Labour as flip-flopping on policyRishi Sunak has accused Keir Starmer of stoking a class war" by maintaining his vow to add VAT on to private school fees if Labour wins the next election, a move that Sunak said would punish" affected parents.The prime minister said Labour's approach illustrates that they don't understand the aspiration of families like my parents who were working really hard". Continue reading...

Exclusive: Potential plan to restrict measures such as 20mph speed limits and levying fines from traffic cameras alarms travel groupsRishi Sunak is to prioritise the interests of millions of car owners with a series of measures that will provoke environmentalists and curb the power of local councils.In a package expected to be announced at the Tory conference on Monday, the prime minister will set out his plan for motorists" that will limit the number of 20mph speed restrictions and favour drivers over bus passengers. Continue reading...

Rex Heuermann, charged over deaths of three women on Long Island, speaks briefly as he bids to regain 280 guns seized by policeThe man accused of killing three women as part of a notorious serial-killing case in New York spoke briefly in a court hearing as prosecutors presented DNA evidence they argued demonstrated the man's connection to the killings.The hearing came months after police arrested architect Rex Heuermann at his home in Massapequa Park in Long Island. Heuermann has been charged over the killings of three women in the so-called Gilgo Beach case, a case that has captivated Suffolk county residents, police and the nation for more than a decade. Continue reading...

Melanie Dawes says regulator will consider any complaints about Lee Anderson's interview with Suella BravermanOfcom's chief executive has said there is nothing under current rules to stop GB News using the Conservative MP Lee Anderson to interview the Tory home secretary, Suella Braverman.Melanie Dawes said she did not want to pre-judge the interview, which will be broadcast on Friday night, because the media regulator was not a censor". She said Ofcom defended freedom of expression" but would consider any complaints about the programme after it aired. Continue reading...

Hopes fade of deal being struck, with one sticking point being right to occasionally breach detention centre standardsEuropean Union member states have failed to reach an agreement on changes to the bloc's migration laws after Germany and Italy clashed over key proposals relating to human rights guarantees in detention centres and the role of NGOs in facilitating migrant arrivals.But, as hopes faded on Thursday of a deal being struck, ministers said they expected fine tuning" in coming days to lead to a pact that would apply in the event of a sudden refugee crisis such as that of 2015 when more than 1 million people arrived from Syria and beyond. Continue reading...

September brings 11 deaths as country rocked by wave of violence, much of it suspected to be linked to split within criminal gangSeptember has become the worst month for shooting deaths in Sweden since records began in 2016, after two people died in separate shootings on Wednesday night, bringing the monthly total to 11.Another person died on Thursday morning after a bomb blast. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed, you can read more of our UK political coverage hereThe former SNP minister Fergus Ewing has claimed his party no longer stands up for Scotland as he was suspended for a week after a disciplinary vote by fellow MSPs.The sanction, which was backed by 48 votes to nine with four abstentions, came about after Ewing voted against the SNP-Green government in a no-confidence motion against the Scottish Green minister Lorna Slater.The SNP I joined would never have asked me, or indeed any other elected politician, to choose between loyalty to party and loyalty to constituents ...It was never an ordinary political party because it was one which put Scotland first.Fergus is a long standing MSP, he has been a minister, he understands the procedures here and what the outcome is of voting in the way that he did.No, you are and you're her direct line boss. So why didn't you deal with that situation, as her boss?The way it works for MPs is slightly different, in the sense that they themselves are elected by their constituents and we have a separate process for them stopping the job that they're in. It is not my ability to do that, actually. Ultimately people elect their MPs regardless of who the prime minister is. Continue reading...