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Church issues guidance saying it ‘may be best’ to avoid planning Christmas services on Sunday 18 DecemberIn an effort to avoid a potential clash between the Three Lions and the three kings, the Church of England is advising vicars to reschedule Christmas carol services due to be held on World Cup final day.The guidance to clergy, under the heading “Making the most of the World Cup final”, warns of the possible difficulties of holding a carol service on Sunday 18 December. The Sunday before Christmas is a traditional time for afternoon or evening festive services. Continue reading...

Major security operation continuing in Northern Irish city after hijacking on Sunday nightA group of masked and armed men forced a delivery driver to transport a suspicious device to a police station in Derry in Northern Ireland, triggering a security alert and evacuations.The hijackers commandeered a grey Ford Mondeo in the Currynierin area of the city on Sunday night and ordered the driver to drive 2.5 miles to Waterside police station, where he abandoned the car and raised the alarm. Continue reading...

Together with his wife Daniele Huillet, Straub was responsible for a string of challenging political filmsAnti-conformist French film-maker Jean-Marie Straub died peacefully at his home in Switzerland on Sunday, the Swiss National Film Archive announced. He was 89.Straub was a peer of many greats from the French New Wave and received the Locarno film festival’s lifetime achievement award in 2017. Continue reading...

Airline chief Shai Weiss attacks airport’s proposal to increase landing charges by 120%Virgin Atlantic has withdrawn its support for Heathrow’s third runway plans amid an ongoing row over the cost of flying from Britain’s biggest airport.The carrier had been one of the most prominent airline backers of expansion before the pandemic. But on Monday its chief executive, Shai Weiss, hit out at Heathrow’s proposal to increase landing charges by 120% and called on the aviation regulator, the CAA, to reform a “broken” system and “pay closer attention to the abuse of power by a de facto monopolistic airport”. Continue reading...

Detectives say Keith Simms, who died earlier this year, was behind 31 attacks between 1985 and 2001 with DNA used to track the predatorAlmost 40 years after his first attack, New South Wales police have identified a serial rapist who terrorised women in Sydney’s eastern suburbs for decades.DNA testing has revealed the culprit to be a 66-year-old man who died from kidney failure in February and who has been named in media reports as Keith Simms from Sydney’s La Perouse. Continue reading...

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk backs the beleaguered police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, to keep her job and implement reforms

As with officers who engaged in serious sexism or racism, the force’s entire leadership have been told to do better in the future

Billboard operator says it captured ‘imagery of individuals’ and passed it to Queensland police, who are now investigating

With sales predicted to be £500m above last year’s total, consumers are warned not to fall for the hypeShoppers have been warned to check they are getting a “genuine bargain” before handing over their cash on Black Friday as research suggests that an extra £500m will be spent during this year’s discount bonanza.Black Friday, a US import that has become popular in the UK, falls on 25 November this year and is followed by Cyber Monday. Continue reading...

Three people died in the capital over the weekend and officials have called for residents to avoid ‘non-imperative’ travelChina reported the deaths of three people in Beijing over the weekend as its first fatalities from Covid-19 in six months, with cases rising despite a stringent zero-Covid policy.China is the last major economy still welded to a no-tolerance policy on the virus and has enforced snap lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines even as the rest of the world adjusts to living with Covid. Continue reading...

Prominent Iranians in film and sport have been condemned for expressing solidarity with the protest movementIran has arrested two prominent actors who expressed solidarity with the country’s protest movement and removed their headscarves in public, according to state media.Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi were both detained after being summoned by prosecutors looking into their “provocative” social media posts, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said. Continue reading...

Minister rubbishes reports of ‘Chequers’-style plan, as businesses expected to call for more ‘practical’ immigration rulesRishi Sunak is facing a new row on two fronts over Brexit, as he sought to quell a backlash from hardline Eurosceptics given suggestions the UK could seek a Swiss-style deal with Brussels, while businesses are expected to call for a more “practical” immigration stance.Ahead of the prime minister’s address to business leaders in Birmingham on Monday morning, Downing Street tried to dampen down speculation that a deal similar to Theresa May’s “Chequers” plan could be adopted, claiming it was “categorically untrue”. Continue reading...

Thirty-one-year-old from Clifton area of the city is being questioned by detectivesA man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder after two children died following a fire at a flat in Nottingham.The 31-year-old from the Clifton area of the city is being held after the blaze in a first-floor flat in Clifton, at about 3am on Sunday. He remains in police custody for questioning. Continue reading...

Cause of death wasn’t immediately released, though multiple reports indicated Frank died by suicideThe actor and mixed martial artist Jason David Frank, who starred on the television series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, has died, his representatives confirmed to the entertain news outlet Geek Ireland. He was 49 years old.Frank attained fame in the early 1990s as the green power ranger, Tommy Oliver, who then becomes the white power ranger on a children’s television show about superheroes who are particularly skilled in martial arts. The show generated spin-off movies, action figures and other toys.The Associated Press contributed reportingIn the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org. Continue reading...

Capital budget of £12bn a year to shrink to £11.7bn, putting Tories’ claim 40 hospitals in England will be built or renovated in doubtPlans by the government to construct and renovate 40 hospitals in England could be delayed because of new analysis suggesting the health and social care department’s capital spending budget faces a real-terms cut of £700m next year, according to the Liberal Democrats.With some hospitals said to be in dire need of repair, the health secretary twice refused to say on Sunday that the NHS was functioning properly and instead admitted it was under “severe pressure”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: after UK networks rake in £15.8bn, Sharon Graham says they are holding the public to ransomThe companies responsible for bringing electricity to UK homes have been accused of “rampant profiteering” by a leading union that is calling for the energy regulator to cap their earnings.Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, has written to Ofgem to ask it to clamp down on “excessive” profits generated by regional electricity distribution network operators (DNOs), which raked in £15.8bn in profits last year and have paid out £3.6bn in dividends between 2017 and 2021. Continue reading...

Mark Drakeford insists people of Wales would want nation’s leader to attend despite controversiesThe Welsh first minister has defended his decision to travel to Qatar for the World Cup, saying he feels that the citizens of Wales want their country’s leader there despite concerns about human rights and working conditions.Speaking in Doha on Sunday, Mark Drakeford admitted that the decision to attend was finely balanced but he said he believed it would have been wrong to leave seats allocated to the Welsh government at the opening ceremony and matches unoccupied. Continue reading...

Presenter says she is stepping down from hosting Channel Ten show after five years, saying the past six months have taken a toll on her and those close to her

Former home of the 18th-century master exhibits the lesser-known works of Cedric Morris, thanks to Maggi HamblingWhen the first visitors cross the threshold of the refurbished Gainsborough House, the childhood home of the artist Thomas Gainsborough in Sudbury, Suffolk, on Monday,the work of another, less famous, local artist and knight of the realm will be competing for attention.Cedric Morris, plant enthusiast, landscape painter and portraitist, is being celebrated for the first time in the museum, which has undergone a £10m revamp. An entire room has been filled with his paintings, some of them given by the renowned artist and sculptor Maggi Hambling. The new space, set up in the grand former home of one of Britain’s best known 18th-century artists, will boast 15 of Morris’s works. “People may already know his flower paintings, but there is so much more. And there has been such a renaissance in Cedric’s standing, and new interest, that we wanted to dedicate a permanent display,” said Mark Bills, director of the new museum and gallery. Continue reading...

Doctors are carrying out more consultations than before the pandemic, despite severe shortages in the professionGPs are struggling to cope with as many as 90 appointments and consultations a day – more than three times a recommended safety limit.General practices in England are carrying out more appointments than before the pandemic but face severe workforce shortages. More than 1.45 million patients waited at least 28 days to see a GP in September, according to the most recent NHS figures. Continue reading...

Residents in the newly liberated freezing city are gathering all the wood they can after the bombing devastated their power suppliesIf it were not for the war, Ukrainian children would have crowded the squares, parks and streets thisweek to play in the first snow of winter. If one of the most brutal conflicts of the last 50 years hadn’t been raging, Kateryna Sliusarchuk, 71, a resident of Kherson, would have taken advantage of the cold to prepare pyrizhky, typical baked, boat-shaped Ukrainian buns with a variety of fillings, and enjoyed them with her grandchildren.But this will not be a season like any other. The first snow to dust the streets of Kyiv, last Thursday, marked the beginning of what is expected to be the hardest winter in the country’s history. The Ukrainian cold is coming and with it a nightmare for millions as they face it without electricity, water or heating. Continue reading...

Labor attempting to link saga to NSW premier, who was treasurer at the time of Stephen Cartwright’s appointment to senior trade job

Some MPs would like Jeremy Hunt to revise tax rises, fearing impact on ‘squeezed middle’ and backlash from red wall areasTory MPs are desperately hoping that a surprise spring economic revival will allow Jeremy Hunt to alter his tax-raising plans, amid warnings that the chancellor’s “stealth tax” autumn statement will extinguish the party’s election hopes.While concerns have already been raised on the right of the party over the extent of the £25bn in tax rises announced by the chancellor last week, figures from across the party said that “emotional and mental exhaustion” had blunted a greater immediate backlash. Continue reading...

Leeds city council letter accepting responsibility believed to be the first of its kindCarrie* is no stranger to a legal challenge. In 2018, alongside other women, she won a landmark case against the Home Office when she challenged a requirement that prostitution offences, including those acquired below the age of 18, be disclosed under criminal record checks.While Carrie, now 49, was giving a detailed statement to her lawyer dealing with this case, she described her time in care. Her childhood was dominated by neglect, sexual abuse and exploitation. It became clear to her lawyers that there was a second case – against the body responsible for the child protection services that failed her so badly: Leeds city council. Continue reading...

Body thought to be that of Les Vugec, 85, who was last seen at his Eugowra home on Monday

Mystery surrounds embezzlement of tax revenues, which appears to have been facilitated by some of the highest offices in the countryIraqis have called it “the heist of the century” – a brazen multibillion-dollar plundering of state coffers that has gripped the country.The theft of $2.5bn was apparently facilitated by some of the highest offices in the land, according to sources and a series of government letters issued in the summer of 2021. The documents, signed by various government institutions including the then prime minister’s office, cancelled the audit of withdrawals from the Iraqi tax commission’s accounts. Continue reading...

Jeremy Hunt’s plans criticised for delay to reform, shifting burden to local authorities and ‘skewing the system’Jeremy Hunt’s decision to fund more social care through increases in council tax will deepen inequality and undermine the cause of “levelling up”, the architect of the government’s planned reforms said last night.The criticism from Andrew Dilnot, the economist whose blueprint for reform was delayed by another two years in Hunt’s first budget on Thursday, was echoed by senior figures in local government who said it would leave poorer areas at a disadvantage and was not the answer to the social care crisis. Continue reading...

Rich kids of Insta use strong dollar to fuel sales of high-end brands such as Burberry, Louis Vuitton and GucciThey’re young, rich and mortgage-free, and the scions of the 1% are having a roaring twenties.Despite the economic gloom currently shrouding the UK and many other western countries, sales of luxury brands have been booming and growing numbers of buyers are young adults. Continue reading...

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MP Catherine Cumming under police investigation over speech at a protest in which she called for Victoria’s premier to be turned into ‘red mist’

Anthony Albanese open to extending the sitting calendar to debate bills on industrial relations and an anti-corruption commission

Gareth Swarbrick fired four days after coroner found two-year-old Awaab died because of ‘chronic exposure’ to mouldThe boss of the social housing landlord of the mouldy flat that killed Awaab Ishak has been sacked, following days of growing pressure from the two-year-old’s family, ministers and MPs.Gareth Swarbrick, who on Thursday issued a defiant statement refusing to quit, was fired on Saturday by the board of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing. Continue reading...

Airstrikes reported against towns including Kobane, held by Kurdish militia opposed by TurkeyTurkish airstrikes hit several towns across northern Syria, including the city of Kobane late on Saturday, Kurdish-led forces and a Britain-based monitoring group have said.The attacks come days after Ankara blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) for last Sunday’s deadly bombing in central Istanbul. Continue reading...

Emergency services called to Logan’s Meadow, a reserve near River Cam, after teenager was stabbed, but unable to save himA 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death in a “targeted attack” in Cambridge on Saturday. Police were called to the scene by the ambulance service after a boy was stabbed at about 2.52pm near Logan’s Meadow, a small reserve next to the River Cam.Despite the efforts of emergency workers, the teenager was declared dead at 2.56pm, Cambridgeshire constabulary said. A murder investigation has been launched. Continue reading...

Failure of one coalition to achieve simple majority in election could bring further political inertia as country faces slowing growth and rising inflationMalaysia was facing a hung parliament for the first time in its history as support for a conservative Islamic alliance prevented major coalitions from winning a simple majority in a general election.Without a clear winner, political uncertainty could persist as Malaysia faces slowing economic growth and rising inflation. It has had three prime ministers in as many years. Continue reading...

The chancellor’s extra billions for healthcare will equate only to a real-term rise of 1.2%Health spending over the next two years will grow less than during the austerity era of the last decade, according to a new analysis of the autumn statement.The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, a former health secretary who previously campaigned for greater resources from the backbenches, announced last week that the NHS would receive an extra £3.3bn in each of the next two years. With severe pressures growing on the service, he said it would be one of his “key priorities”. Continue reading...

Home Office confirms person who arrived in UK on small boat a week ago was taken ill and later diedA man who arrived in the UK on a small boat a week ago and was being processed at Manston has died, the Home Office said on Saturday. He became ill while at the Kent detention site and was taken to hospital, but later died.It is understood that he arrived on 12 November and was taken ill on Friday evening. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Labour leader plans a new elected chamber after accusing successive Tory governments of handing peerages to ‘lackeys and donors’Keir Starmer will abolish the House of Lords and replace it with a new elected chamber as part of plans to “restore trust in politics”, the Observer understands.In a sweeping constitutional overhaul, the Labour leader has told the party’s peers that he wants to strip politicians of the power to make appointments to the Lords as part of the first-term programme of a Labour government. Starmer said that the public’s faith in the political system had been undermined by successive Tory leaders handing peerages to “lackeys and donors”. Continue reading...

The party has spent three times more than the Liberals on political advertising on the platform

Clear winner from three main contenders looks unlikely in first election since voting age lowered to 18Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim took a narrow lead in Saturday’s general election, though he and his main contenders were far short of a simple majority needed to form the government, early results from the election commission showed.The former premier Muhyiddin Yassin took an early close second, while the ruling coalition of the prime minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, put up the weakest showing among the three main contenders, losing ground in traditional strongholds, the results showed. Continue reading...

Opposition to Russian aggression has helped Poles and Ukrainians put bitter 20th-century history behind themPatriot missiles ring the airport in the Polish border city of Rzeszów, and US troops have taken over the Holiday Inn opposite the terminal. On its runway, once the preserve of budget carriers, private jets are lined up beside cargo planes crammed with weapons.The bristling circle of military protection, set up hastily in early spring as the historic town became the world’s gateway to the war in Ukraine, is both a shield and a constant reminder of the conflict on its doorstep. Continue reading...

UK prime minister makes first visit to Ukraine since taking powerMykhailo Podolyak, a political adviser to the Ukrainian president, has dismissed “conspiracy theories” about his country surrendering.“Ukraine will not kneel to Russians,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter.It is not a matter of politics. It is a matter of our existence.This is important for Russia as debt issuance is a key mechanism to sustain defence spending, which has increased significantly since the invasion of Ukraine.Debt issuance is expensive during periods of uncertainty. The size of this auction highly likely indicates the Russian Ministry of Finance perceives current conditions as relatively favourable but is anticipating an increasingly uncertain fiscal environment over the next year. Continue reading...

Florence + the Machine singer took a tumble during a performance at the O2 Arena in LondonFlorence + the Machine has cancelled its tour after lead singer Florence Welch broke her foot on stage on Friday night.Welch took a tumble during a performance at the O2 Arena in London, which was the first gig in England on the Dance Fever tour. Continue reading...

Persian language channel said threats to journalists had escalated in response to coverage of protestsArmed vehicles have been deployed outside the Iran International television studios in London after two of its journalists were threatened by Tehran, the channel said.There were about seven vehicles outside the studio in Chiswick Park, west London, after “severe and credible” threats were recently made against two of the UK-based channel’s journalists, one of its spokesmen told AFP. Continue reading...

Analysis of ONS figures suggests average woman’s salary has fallen from £30,250 in 2010 to £29,680 todayWomen are £570 a year worse off than they were before the Conservatives came into power 12 years ago and the autumn statement will leave them even worse off, Labour has claimed.Citing analysis of ONS figures, Labour said that in real terms, the median full-time female worker’s salary has fallen from the equivalent of £30,250 in April 2010 to £29,680. Continue reading...

LGBTQ+ activists call on fans to boycott games or use social media to highlight human rights abusesPeter Tatchell has warned Qatar that the world’s eyes will be on the country during the World Cup, as protesters gathered outside its embassy in London to highlight the dangers faced by LGBTQ+ people, women and migrant workers.Tatchell said t was “outrageous” that figures including David Beckham were promoting Qatar and the tournament, in effect asking fans to ignore human rights abuses and the country’s record on LGBTQ+ issues. Continue reading...

Seriously injured victim airlifted to hospital after escaped animal went on rampage in Carmarthenshire villageAn elderly man has been taken to hospital with serious injuries after being attacked and trampled by an “dangerously out-of-control” cow, police said.Dyfed-Powys police received reports that the cow had escaped from Whitland Mart in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Continue reading...

Charity warns of ‘significant risk’ that those on old prepayment meters will be unable to redeem vouchers offering £400 discountThe poorest and most vulnerable people in the UK risk missing out on the energy bill support and cost of living payments they are entitled to, because of a lack of clarity over what is available from the government and how to get it, charities have warned.Under the energy bills support scheme announced by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor, all households are eligible for a £400 energy bill discount, paid across six instalments starting last month. Continue reading...

Singer thanks fans for ‘coming back to me’ and says she has never been so nervous as she launches residencyThe nerves were all part of the show when Adele launched her long-awaited Vegas residency on Friday night. After the notorious rescheduling of her dates at just one day’s notice in January, it was never going to be possible to ignore the high stakes – even in a town built on colossal bets.“I’m so nervous and I’m so scared and I’m so happy,” she said. “It might be a bit wobbly at times because my nerves are out of control … It’s a bloody massive week for me this week. It’s the Walking Dead finale on Sunday!” In an Instagram post on Thursday night, she wrote that she had “never been more nervous before a show”. Continue reading...