World news | The Guardian

Final polls suggest deadlock, but if rightwing alliance keeps slowly gaining, scandal-plagued former PM may scrape inWith polls too close to call the day before Israel holds its fifth election in four years, even minute shifts in voter turnout could make or break the longtime prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comeback attempt, for which he has allied with rightwing extremists.Israeli politicians were busy making their final campaign pitches on Monday, after Friday’s final pre-election polls suggested that neither Netanyahu’s rightwing religious bloc, nor the opposing centre-left bloc, would win enough seats to form a government. Continue reading...

Statement to home affairs select committee appears to contradict letter to then PM Liz Truss

Proceedings against Bristol Rovers manager stayed as prosecutors decline to call Georgia Barton to give evidenceThe Bristol Rovers manager, Joey Barton, has been cleared of assaulting his wife after a judge ruled that he could not receive a fair trial because prosecutors would not call the alleged victim to give evidence.The former Premier League midfielder, 40, was accused of pushing Georgia Barton, 36, to the floor before kicking her during a row at their home in Kew, south-west London, on 2 June last year. Continue reading...

As winter looms, Moscow escalates missile attacks on vital utilities such as hydro plants, substations and dams

Three directors of Clearsprings Ready Homes share dividends of almost £28m, as profits rise sixfoldA company contracted by the UK Home Office to manage hotels and other accommodation for asylum seekers increased its profits more than sixfold last year, with its three directors sharing dividends of almost £28m.Clearsprings Ready Homes has a 10-year contract to manage asylum seeker accommodation in England and Wales, a mix of hotel accommodation that the Home Office says is costing it more than £5m a day, and shared housing. Continue reading...

Officials say they did not issue a certificate to the company in charge of Morbi bridge that it was fit for public use after repairsIndian police have arrested nine people, including ticketing clerks and contractors, as part of their investigation into the collapse of a footbridge in which at least 134 people, including many children, were killed.CCTV footage from just before the collapse showed a group of young men taking photos while others tried to rock the suspension bridge in Morbi from side to side, before they tumbled into the river below as the cables gave way. Continue reading...

Survey after Jim Chalmers’ first budget suggests people pessimistic about economic outlook amid cost-of-living pressures

Biden, Macron, Trudeau and Maduro were among those quick to share their congratulations

US-funded upgrade of Tindal airbase in Northern Territory will allow it to house up to six B-52s, as minister says Australia must remain ‘vigilant’

Director says it’s ‘time to tell new stories’ as people from south Asian diaspora contribute experiencesA museum with a dizzying, encyclopaedic collection that spans Egyptian mummies, dinosaur skeletons and live Costa Rican frogs is to reopen next year after a £15m revamp – with a promise to be more inclusive and imaginative.Manchester Museum has about 4.5m objects from around the world, a mix of exhibits from natural sciences and human cultures all under one roof. Continue reading...

Calls for GPS tagging to be abolished as report finds people left suicidal and stigmatised by the practiceLawyers and charities have called for controversial electronic tagging of migrants to be scrapped, describing it in a new report as a form of “psychological torture”.Tagging of people in the criminal justice system has been in place for years but it was only since August 2021 that a duty to monitor those on immigration bail facing deportation was introduced. GPS tagging, a more invasive form that can track people’s every move including where they shop, worship and who they spend time with, was introduced in January. Continue reading...

Dataset from communications platform ForceNet containing up to 40,000 records may be compromised after breach on external provider

Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Board’s 2022 annual report found Maeve* took her own life after protection order issued

Committee recommends removing three offences disproportionately affecting First Nations people

It’s a Sin actor Shaun Dooley plays former PM in cold war thriller The Ghost of Harold WilsonA new drama about Harold Wilson has become the first feature film to be shot inside the House of Commons chamber after producers appealed directly to the Speaker as well as MPs and peers who knew the former Labour prime minister.The Ghost of Harold Wilson is billed as a “tense political thriller” based on a meeting between Wilson and two journalists during the cold war. Continue reading...

Retailer will provide paid time off to attend medical appointments, including staff who use a surrogateStaff at the Co-op will be able to take paid time off for fertility treatments, under a new policy launched by the retailer.Co-op’s chief executive, Shirine Khoury-Haq, said she has gone through the process of fertility treatment herself and wants to create a supportive environment for her employees. Continue reading...

State education minister Grace Grace says review to look at regulation of non-state schools and measures to protect students

After four years of Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right rule, Lula da Silva says his first priority will be helping the 100 million Brazilians living in povertyThe euphoria of an election victory is fleeting and while many Brazilians will wake up with a hangover after celebrating the defeat of Jair Bolsonaro, president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will soon have his own headaches to deal with.Lula takes power on 1 January 2023 and will be charged with rebuilding and reuniting a nation that has been left damaged and bitterly divided after four years of Bolsonaro’s anarchic far-right policies. Continue reading...

Daniel Andrews says $15m government deal will encourage grassroots participation as well as promote tourism in the state

The Superior Electoral Court of Brazil has announced that Lula is elected president, after a nailbiting count that went to the wire. Find out how every state voted

Met police confirm fatalities following reports of gunshots in LambethTwo men have died after gunshots were heard on Sunday evening in Lambeth, south London, the Metropolitan police has said.Police officers were called at about 7.50pm following reports of gunshots on Railton Road, according to the statement. Firearms officers, the London ambulance service and London’s air ambulance responded to the incident. Continue reading...

Grattan Institute urges Albanese government to retain strict criteria and annual performance tests

Luxury store made profit of £51m in 2021-22 after Covid restrictions eased and tourists returnedHarrods more than doubled the pay of its managing director, Michael Ward, last year to £2.3m, even as the company collected almost £6m in government support under the furlough scheme.Ward, understood to be the highest-paid director at the upmarket department store in Knightsbridge, west London, increased his package from £1m the previous year after Harrods returned to profit as pandemic restrictions eased. Continue reading...

Darren Rodwell, Barking and Dagenham council leader, selected to stand despite comments at Black History Month eventA white council leader who once joked that he had “the worst tan possible for a black man” has been selected to stand as a Labour MP.Darren Rodwell, the leader of Barking and Dagenham London borough council, fought off selection competition from councillor Josie Channer, a black councillor who has previously run for selection near Bristol. Continue reading...

Raids on student campuses sparked protests despite threats made by chief of security force about response to further unrestThousands of Iranians have demonstrated in defiance of a final warning by the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that he would bring protests to an end with unprecedented force.Rallies were held on the streets on Sunday to protest against raids on student dormitories over the weekend in which students were taken away in buses to state detention. Some were sent text messages saying they were banned from campus indefinitely. Continue reading...

Rescue operation under way following incident at pedestrian suspension bridge in city of MorbiAt least 60 people were killed when a pedestrian bridge over a river in the western Indian state of Gujarat collapsed, plunging hundreds of people into the water, officials have said.Authorities said that more than 150 people were on the suspension bridge over the Machchhu River in the city of Morbi at the time of the collapse. Continue reading...

International condemnation after Russia suspends grain deal; Russia claims it has identified the drones used to attack its Black Sea fleet

Jeremy Vine, Basharat Peer and Katharine Viner join Guardian readers in honouring the former columnistFurther tributes have been paid to Ian Jack, the Guardian columnist and former editor of Granta and the Independent on Sunday who died on Friday at the age of 77.In his final piece for the Guardian, published last week, he reminisced on his memories of the BBC, which he described as “one of the world’s great cultural projects”, to mark its centenary. Continue reading...

Labour and women’s rights groups criticise ‘deeply troubling’ appointment of Maria CaulfieldMaria Caulfield, a Tory MP who supported cutting the abortion time limit and voted against buffer zones outside clinics, has been named as minister for women, prompting criticism from charities and women’s rights groups.Caulfield, the MP for Lewes, was previously an officer of the all-party parliamentary “pro-life” group and voted against legalising abortion in Northern Ireland. Continue reading...

Cities near to the Foxconn plant have drawn up plans to isolate migrant workers who are returning to homeCities in central China have hastily drawn up plans to isolate migrant workers fleeing to their home towns from the country’s largest iPhone factory, amid fears they will spread coronavirus after leaving the plant in Covid-hit Zhengzhou.Videos shared on Chinese social media showed people who are allegedly workers at the Foxconn plant climbing over fences and carrying their belongings along a road. It was previously reported that a number of workers had been placed under quarantine because of an outbreak of the disease. Continue reading...

Lowy Institute’s Pacific Aid Map charts thousands of projects and activities from 67 donor entities, including Australia and the USChina is funnelling aid to Kiribati and Solomon Islands, while its overall spending in the Pacific region is in decline, the latest Pacific Aid Map reveals.The Lowy Institute on Monday released its 2022 updated version of the map, an interactive analytical tool that enables users to track aid flow and development funding in the Pacific. Continue reading...

Levelling up secretary does not deny breach took place, as Labour says No 10 not taking national security seriously enoughMichael Gove has pointedly declined to deny a report that Liz Truss’s personal phone was potentially hacked by Russian agents, as Labour accused the government of “not taking national security seriously enough”.Gove, returned to the cabinet this week by Rishi Sunak as levelling up secretary, said he could not discuss any possible security breaches, while insisting there were “robust protocols” in place over such issues. Continue reading...

House of Lords watchdog has been examining Earl of Shrewsbury over his work for healthcare firmA Conservative hereditary peer appears to have misled the House of Lords standards watchdog during an investigation into his alleged misconduct.The House of Lords commissioners for standards have been investigating the Earl of Shrewsbury over claims he misused his parliamentary position to lobby for a healthcare firm that was paying him. Continue reading...

Police say 79-year-old man was known to victim and has been taken into custody for questioningA 79-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman was killed in the latest fatal shooting on Merseyside.Police found the body of the woman, who was in her 50s, at 1.45am on Sunday after being called to an address in Moreton on the Wirral. Continue reading...

President Yoon Suk-yeol declares state of national mourning after fatal surge in Itaewon nightlife quarter of South Korean capitalSouth Korea was plunged into mourning as it attempted to make sense of the deaths of at least 153 people who were crushed and trampled to death in a narrow alley during Halloween celebrations in Itaewon, a packed nightlife area of Seoul.An estimated 100,000 people, many in costume, gathered in Itaewon on Saturday night as the lifting of social distancing, mask mandates and other anti-Covid measures cleared the way for the first Halloween party in three years. Continue reading...

Armed gangs have shut off access to Haiti’s main fuel terminal, decimating basic services amid a cholera and hunger crisisThe Haitian ambassador to Washington has appealed to the international community to accelerate talks on deploying an armed intervention, warning that criminal gangs were in danger of taking over the country.Bocchit Edmond made his appeal as efforts to agree to a UN resolution backing such a force appear to have stalled, and as the US and Canada have been holding urgent talks looking for ways to break the impasse. Continue reading...

The spat and injury inspired Bacon to paint his violent expressionist canvas Self-Portrait with Injured EyeFrancis Bacon feared for his sight in one eye and how it would affect his future as a painter after he was seriously injured in a drunken brawl with a lover in 1972, it has emerged.Part of the evidence comes from the previously unpublished diaries of the late Denis Wirth-Miller, who was Bacon’s friend for 45 years, although their relationship was famously turbulent. Continue reading...

Deleted chapter of book by British spy who supported Arab revolt reveals his true feelings about insincere pledge of self-governmentTE Lawrence was “continually and bitterly ashamed” of the betrayal of the Middle East following the Arab revolt in which he became a British national hero, according to a chapter in his book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom which he decided to remove before publication.He was persuaded to remove the chapter by his friend, the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, and it was never printed in any edition. However, for the first time, an extremely rare copy of the manuscript – including the expunged chapter – has come to the open market with a price tag of £65,000. Continue reading...

Former prime minister could be told to limit rewards for allies and friends after her disastrous seven-week tenureLiz Truss will be advised by Buckingham Palace not to present a long list of resignation honours after her short and disastrous premiership, according to senior figures with experience of the system.One source with close knowledge of honours protocol told the Observer that, given her time in No 10 lasted just seven weeks and was marred by economic crisis and U-turns, rewarding lots of allies and friends would be seen as inappropriate by the Palace, by cabinet secretary Simon Case and almost certainly by the new prime minister, Rishi Sunak. Continue reading...

Government says process was informed by national security advice, individual assessments and detailed work by security agencies

Rishi Sunak’s arrival in Downing Street is already helping to repair the party’s reputation for financial managementRishi Sunak and the Conservatives have overturned Labour’s lead in terms of who voters trust most to manage the economy, a new poll for the Observer has revealed.The new prime minister is currently drawing up tax rises and spending cuts designed to fill a £40bn fiscal hole left by Liz Truss’s disastrous time in Downing Street, with warnings that any significant attempt to cut Whitehall budgets will lead to huge pressure on public services. It comes with new analysis revealing that freezing public service spending would save £20bn but would also lead to a return to the austerity of the 2010s. Continue reading...

Footballer Marcus Rashford’s victory on school meals is crumbling as English councils drop schemesCouncils across England are “quietly” axing holiday food voucher schemes for children on free school meals, which has left many families desperate this half-term, headteachers and charities warn.It took a massive public campaign, led by the Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford, to force Boris Johnson into a U-turn in November 2020 on feeding children from the lowest-income families during the school holidays. Continue reading...

Vessel travelling north collides with Cuban coast guard ship near Bahía Honda, reports sayA boat off northern Cuba travelling toward the United States sank Saturday after a collision with a Cuban coastguard ship and at least five people died, Cuban state media reported on Saturday.The craft reportedly flipped over after the crash near Bahía Honda, about two hours from the capital, Havana. Among the five known dead were a minor and three women, while 23 people were rescued, the Cubadebate report said. Continue reading...

Four Israelis and one Palestinian injured in gun attack in Hebron, say Israel's emergency services and armyA gun attack in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron wounded five people on Saturday, including four Israelis and one Palestinian, and the assailant was shot dead, Israel’s emergency services and the army have said.Extreme-right Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose Religious Zionism alliance is eyeing major gains in elections on Tuesday, has claimed that his Hebron home was the target. Continue reading...

US embassy identified Sandton district as potential target, but event went ahead after South African authorities insisted it was safeThousands of people gathered for the Pride march in South Africa’s largest city Johannesburg on Saturday despite a warning from the US embassy of a possible terror attack.The event took place under heavy security in the upmarket district of Sandton, identified by the US embassy as a potential target. Continue reading...

Breach discovered during Tory leadership in summer but details suppressed, the Mail on Sunday reportsThe government has been urged to launch an urgent investigation after reports that Liz Truss’s phone was hacked.The breach was discovered when Truss, then the foreign secretary, was running for the Tory leadership in the summer, but details were suppressed by the then-prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, the Mail on Sunday reported. Continue reading...

Carbon-neutral farmer says use of offsets from Armoobilla project ‘outrageous’ but company says they meet ‘rigorous requirements’ of government standard

Luke O’Connor, 19, was stabbed to death in Fallowfield area of city on WednesdayA teenager has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of student Luke O’Connor, who was stabbed to death in south Manchester.

MPs who received gifts later appeared to speak favourably about Qatar in parliamentary debatesQatar has spent more money on gifts and trips for British MPs in the past year than any other country, according to Observer analysis that reveals the Gulf state’s lobbying efforts ahead of next month’s football World Cup.The Qatari government made gifts to members of parliament worth £251,208 in the 12 months to October 2022, including luxury hotel stays, business-class flights and tickets to horse-racing events. Continue reading...

Moscow plans expedited Kherson withdrawal, says MoD; Guterres calls for west to help remove blocks to Russian grain exports