by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#64KDK)
Travel industry research finds strong demand after pandemic but fears over inflation and weak poundOne in three holidaymakers will cut back on spending next year due to the cost of living crisis, according to travel industry research.The travel association Abta said a strong recovery in demand for travel this year was expected to continue next year, but its own surveys suggested people would opt for cheaper trips and cut back on spending money. Continue reading...
After 131 lives were lost at a match, supporters have come together to offer support and seek answersIn Indonesia, football fan culture is vibrant, and its rivalries intense. Animosity between opposing teams is so strong that away fans are generally banned from attending games, as was the case at the time of the Kanjuruhan stadium disaster, when only home Arema supporters were allowed tickets.Rivalries have descended into violence in the past. Before the Kanjuruhan disaster, 78 people had died in football-related accidents over the last 28 years, according to government figures. It is common for away players to be escorted to and from matches by armoured vehicles. Continue reading...
Urgent aid response needed as climate crisis, Covid, local conflicts and soaring fuel prices push millions more into hungerDecades of work to reduce hunger in Africa are being reversed as the continent struggles to cope with conflict, climate crisis and the global economic downturn, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has warned.About 278 million people in Africa – approximately one-fifth of the total population – went hungry in 2021, an increase of 50 million people since 2019, according to UN figures. Based on current trends, this is projected to rise to 310 million by 2030. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor on (#64KBP)
Shadow minister and Ilford South MP demands Labour release names of those who cast electronic votes in constituencyThe former shadow minister, Sam Tarry, who was deselected as Ilford South’s MP on Monday night, has demanded the party release the names of those who cast electronic votes in his constituency.Tarry lost his re-selection battle by a significant margin to the Redbridge council leader Jas Athwal, who was the favourite to win selection in 2019. Athwal was suspended from the process at the last election because of a complaint that was subsequently dismissed – and Tarry’s selection has been the focus of bitter resentment in the constituency and among many MPs who supported Athwal. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor on (#64KAD)
Health secretary said there is limited scope for negotiation on 3% offer and she is ‘not anticipating further changes’Thérèse Coffey has said nurses will not get a higher pay offer, as they vote on strike action for the first time in decades.The Royal College of Nursing will ballot nurses this week, asking for a higher pay award as well as action to tackle pressures caused by surging vacancies. Continue reading...
Supermarket price inflation at record high, adding £643 a year to average family’s grocery billHouseholds are turning to “wonky” vegetables and frozen food in an attempt to keep costs down as grocery prices soared by a record 13.9% last month.Inflation in supermarkets is at the highest level since at least 2008 when the market research group Kantar began collecting data, adding £643 a year to the average family’s grocery bill, which now exceeds £5,200. Continue reading...
Airport remained Europe’s busiest in summer though passenger numbers were below pre-Covid levelHeathrow is expecting a busy Christmas travel period but has warned that future demand for air travel remains uncertain, partly as a result of the worsening economic outlook.Almost 5.8 million passengers travelled through the airport in September, making it Europe’s busiest during the summer, as customers jetted off after the end of Covid travel restrictions. However, passenger levels remained 15% below pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Continue reading...
Latest advances to curb Aids, tuberculosis and malaria are beyond reach without funding, says Global Fund’s executive directorSome of the poorest countries in the Commonwealth may be left unable to deploy cutting-edge UK innovations against three of the world’s deadliest diseases if Britain fails to give generously to a key international fund, the UK government has been warned.Peter Sands, the executive director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said the combined death toll from the diseases could be halved in the next four years in the countries where the fund invests. Continue reading...
In today’s newsletter: Russia responded to an attack on a military supply line with a devastating blitz on civilian targets. Peter Beaumont speaks from Kyiv about defiance, destruction and what to expect
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#64K6Z)
Officials say health secretary will not publish plan, as campaigners warn ‘smoke-free’ UK is seven years behind targetMinisters are expected to break a promise to announce an action plan to tackle smoking, in their latest controversial U-turn on public health, Whitehall insiders say.The government had committed several times to publish a tobacco control plan “later this year”. However, the health secretary, Thérèse Coffey, does not intend to honour that promise, according to officials with knowledge of her intentions. Continue reading...
by Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent on (#64K5N)
Hinds says in open letter to PM that proposed laws on unsolved murders would ‘cut off any prospect of justice’One of the stars of Kenneth Branagh’s movie Belfast has written to Liz Truss urging her to scrap controversial legislation about unsolved murders during the Northern Ireland Troubles.In an open letter to the prime minister, Belfast-born Ciarán Hinds told her the proposed laws would “permanently cut off any prospect of justice for the families and loved ones of those killed during the Troubles”. Continue reading...
NAO to examine £120m Unboxed project after MPs call it an ‘irresponsible use of public money’It was Jacob Rees-Mogg who christened it a festival of Brexit – a moniker that might well have cursed it from the beginning.Announced by Theresa May in the aftermath of Britain’s referendum on EU membership, and supposedly inspired by the 1851 Great Exhibition and 1951’s Festival of Britain, the then prime minister heralded a programme of events to be held this year to “showcase what makes our country great today”. Continue reading...
Japan removes strict Covid-19 travel curbs, fuelling hopes a tourist boom will reinvigorate the economyJapan has fully opened its doors to visitors after more than two years of pandemic isolation.On Tuesday, the country reinstated visa-free travel to dozens of countries, ending some of world’s strictest Covid-19 border controls. Japan has also lifted the 50,000-person entry cap and ended the requirement for tourists to travel as part of tour groups, Kyodo news agency reported. Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent on (#64JZH)
Boss says bank is putting aside more money for potential defaults linked to cost of living crisisThe boss of Santander UK says the bank is putting aside more money for potential defaults linked to the cost of living crisis after seeing a pickup in customers falling behind on mortgage and loan payments.Mike Regnier told the Guardian that he was keeping a close eye on the “strain and pressure” facing customers as a result of the cost of living crisis, which has made it harder for some households to keep up with rising food and energy bills and financial commitments such as home loans. Continue reading...
Files on Russian intelligence officer and ‘lady-killer’ Eugene Ivanov littered with reports of drunkennessEugene Ivanov, the Russian spy at the centre of the 1963 Profumo scandal, was a philandering alcoholic whose weakness for women and drink M15 hoped to exploit to get him to defect, but who ended up toppling the Macmillan government by chance, according to newly released intelligence files.He arrived at the Russian embassy in London as assistant naval attache in 1960 but M15 suspected he was an intelligence officer, partly because he didn’t seem to know much about ships and also he carried an umbrella. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor on (#64JJP)
Jas Athwal, leader of Redbridge council, wins hustings vote by 499 to 361 after constituency triggered reselectionThe former shadow minister Sam Tarry has been deselected as an MP by local Labour party members amid a bitter row in the Ilford South constituency.Tarry, a former senior trade union official who helped organise Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign, lost the chance to contest the seat at the next election. Continue reading...
Man in custody after members of public stabbed while trying to stop phone robbery near Liverpool Street stationA 25-year-old man has been arrested after three people were stabbed as members of the public tried to intervene in a phone robbery in central London.The suspect was arrested by detectives investigating a number of serious offences connected with the attempted robbery and knife attack in Bishopsgate last Thursday, said temporary DCI Colin Bishop, of City of London police’s major crime team. Continue reading...
Stefan Sylvestre, who was acting on orders from Piper’s ex-boyfriend, was released from prison in 2018, but has breached licence conditionsPolice are searching for a man, jailed for an acid attack on the model and campaigner Katie Piper, who is believed to have left the country.The Metropolitan police said their inquiries indicated that Stefan Sylvestre left the UK on 2 August. The force said it was notified last month that the 34-year-old had been recalled to prison after breaching his licence conditions. His last known address was in north London. Continue reading...
by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#64JWD)
British spy agency director to say in rare public address that Ukraine is ‘turning the tide’ against RussiaVladimir Putin has made strategic errors in his pursuit of the war in Ukraine partly because there are so few restraints on his leadership, the head of the British spy agency GCHQ will say in a speech on Tuesday.Russia’s soldiers are running out of supplies and munitions and initial gains made by Moscow are being reversed, Jeremy Fleming is expected to add in a rare public address. Continue reading...
Alexander O’Connor is alleged to have assaulted a woman over the course of two days in JuneThe musician Rex Orange County, aka Alexander O’Connor, has been charged with six counts of sexually assaulting a woman, the Sun has reported.On 1 June, the 24-year-old allegedly assaulted the woman twice in London’s West End and then four times the next day, including once in a taxi and on three instances at his home in Notting Hill. The woman is reputedly over the age of 16. Continue reading...
by Julian Borger in Washington, Peter Beaumont in Kyi on (#64JTR)
Kyiv presses military and diplomatic wishlist as French president sees ‘profound change in nature of this war’Volodymyr Zelenskiy will address G7 leaders on Tuesday to demand a significant increase in their military and diplomatic support after the biggest Russian missile attack on Ukrainian cities since the start of the war.The French president, Emmanuel Macron, described the attack, in which cruise missiles and armed drones rained down on parks, playgrounds, power stations and other civilian targets, as “a profound change in the nature of this war”. Continue reading...
The Bahraini activist who is serving a life sentence in prison for his role in anti-government protests was chosen to share the PEN Pinter prize by Malorie BlackmanThe academic, activist and blogger Abduljalil al-Singace from Bahrain has been named this year’s international writer of courage by Malorie Blackman. Al-Singace is serving a life sentence in prison for his role in Bahrain’s 2011 anti-government protests.The award is part of the PEN Pinter prize, which goes to an author deemed to have fulfilled Harold Pinter’s aspiration to “define the real truth of our lives and our societies”. This year’s PEN Pinter winner was Blackman, the first children’s writer to be awarded the prize. She chose al-Singace as the international writer of courage, an award for an author who has been persecuted for speaking out about their beliefs, with whom she will share her prize. Continue reading...
Jack Sepple, 23, killed Ashley Wadsworth, 19, after becoming angered by her decision to return homeA man who stabbed his 19-year-old girlfriend to death in a “brutal and cowardly attack” after being angered by her decision to return home to Canada has been handed a life sentence.Jack Sepple, 23, killed Ashley Wadsworth at the one-bedroom flat they shared in Chelmsford, Essex, on 1 February. Continue reading...
Death of Anthony Bird was unsolved for 41 years until John Paul, 61, allegedly told police he had ‘battered him’A 61-year-old accused of killing a part-time barman more than 40 years ago walked into a police station to confess to murder, a court has heard.Anthony Bird, 42, was found dead at his flat in west London on 6 June 1980, naked and with his wrists bound, the Old Bailey heard. His death remained unsolved for 41 years, until John Paul allegedly told police he had “battered him” with a lump of wood. Continue reading...
Scotland’s first minister leaves question of how independence will be delivered hanging in the airIt was a cleverly crafted speech from Nicola Sturgeon, by far the UK’s longest-serving party leader; she used bright splashes of colour, judicious notes of caution, and delivered it with conviction.Yet what was equally noticeable was what she did not say. For all the optimism and confidence-building Sturgeon offered around the case for independence, there was much less clarity and certainty about how it might be delivered. Her speech left that question, the biggest question of all, hanging in the air. Continue reading...
Any use of Italy’s publicly owned art to sell merchandise requires permission and payment of a feeItaly’s Uffizi Galleries are suing the French fashion house Jean Paul Gaultier for damages that could exceed €100,000 (£88,000) after the company’s allegedly unauthorised use of images of Botticelli’s Renaissance masterpiece The Birth of Venus to adorn a range of clothing products, including T-shirts, leggings and bodices.The matter came to light earlier this year after the Uffizi in Florence was notified of the garments being advertised by Jean Paul Gaultier on its website and social media. Continue reading...
by Josh Halliday North of England correspondent on (#64JN0)
Nurse is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder another 10 between June 2015 and June 2016A nurse murdered seven babies and attempted to kill 10 others by poisoning them on a hospital neonatal unit where she was a “constant malevolent presence”, a court has heard.Lucy Letby, 32, fatally injected newborns with insulin, air or milk during night shifts when she knew their parents would not be present, a jury was told. Continue reading...
by Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent on (#64JGJ)
First minister promises ‘steady hand on tiller’ while offering reassurance to those opposed to UK exitFollow the latest developments – politics liveNicola Sturgeon has told the Scottish National party’s annual conference that “we are the independence generation”, while reassuring those who will never be persuaded of the merits of leaving the UK that “whatever happens in future, Scotland belongs to you as much as it does to us”.Addressing delegates in Aberdeen at the party’s first in-person conference since the pandemic, she promised Scotland “a steady and compassionate hand on the tiller” through the cost of living crisis. Continue reading...
Spokesperson says ‘no plans’ to reclassify drug despite claims that home secretary supports moveDowning Street has distanced itself from reports that Suella Braverman wished to reclassify marijuana as a class A drug amid sniping from parliamentary colleagues that the home secretary was failing to fall into line with government policies.The prime minister’s spokesperson said on Monday that there were “no plans” to change the drug from class B, despite several reports claiming that those close to the home secretary said she supported the move. Continue reading...
Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad was subjected to force by IDF soldiers at a West Bank checkpointIsrael says it has reached a settlement with the family of a Palestinian-American man who died after soldiers used force to detain him, in a rare case of compensation for a Palestinian claim of wrongdoing by Israeli forces.Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad, 78, was detained at a checkpoint in Jiljilya in the occupied West Bank in January and “apprehended after resisting a check”, according to an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) statement. He was handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded for between 20 minutes and an hour, and found by locals after the soldiers left. Continue reading...
by Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent on (#64J59)
Members of Criminal Bar Association accept government pay rise of 15% on legal aid fees for most crown casesCriminal barristers have voted to accept the government’s pay deal on legal aid fees and end their indefinite strike.The offer by the justice secretary, Brandon Lewis, included a 15% increase in legal aid fees to “the vast majority of cases currently in the crown court”, £3m of funding for case preparation and £4m for prerecorded cross-examinations of vulnerable victims and witnesses. Continue reading...
The most important lesson from that decade is not to waste the moment of a prospective Labour governmentOn Wednesday, Liz Truss arrived on stage at her party conference to M People’s Moving On Up. In some ways, it was an apt choice, its final stanza saying more or less exactly what the speech said:Moving, moving, moving
H5N1 strain, first detected in Europe, has spread rapidly across the country, and with no vaccine available, options are limitedEver year during the fall migration season, 5.4 million waterfowl descend on California, as birds from Canada and Alaska make their way south on an aerial transnational highway known as the Pacific Flyway.This year, the arrival of the birds also brings concern. A new avian influenza is circulating, and that means trouble for domestic chickens, wild birds and even mammals. Continue reading...
Move comes in response to violent suppression of protests over death of Mahsa Amini in police custodyBritain has announced sanctions against Iran’s morality police in its entirety as well as its national chief and the head of its Tehran division in response to the violent suppression of protests since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.The morality police have been responsible for the street patrols forcing women to wear hijab and attend re-education classes on modesty and chastity. Amini was stopped by the morality police over her clothing while walking in a park in Tehran and taken into detention. Continue reading...
by Josh Halliday North of England correspondent on (#64J8K)
Letby, 32, entered not guilty pleas at Manchester court to seven counts of murder and 15 of attempted murderA nurse has pleaded not guilty to murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others in a hospital neo-natal ward in Chester.Lucy Letby, 32, is accused of killing or attempting to kill 17 babies at the Countess of Chester hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Internal report at nurses’ union finds male-dominated governing body ‘not fit for purpose’A damning inquiry into the Royal College of Nursing, the world’s biggest nurses’ union, has exposed bullying, misogyny and a sexual culture where women are at risk of “alcohol and power-related exploitation”.A 77-page internal report by Bruce Carr KC, leaked to the Guardian, lays bare how the RCN’s senior leadership has been “riddled with division, dysfunction and distrust” and condemns the male-dominated governing body, known as council, as “not fit for purpose”.that it is “clear that congress is seen by many as an opportunity to engage in sexual activity, which will carry with it a substantial risk that a line will be crossed so as to become exploitative … All the more so where there is a power imbalance between the individuals involved and all the more so where large amounts of alcohol are consumed”.There is a “culture in which the ‘congress wife’ (or husband) is a term in common usage and is reflective of a prevalence of extramarital sexual relationships”, which encourages others to expect “to have the opportunity [to] engage in similar behaviour”.An elected official had informed him that people’s “moral compass” would fall away at conference. The individual said he had been “approached in a way by females, over a few years, and basically – how can I put it – offering it to you on a plate, if you like: it’s there for you, because they perceive you as having power”.A council member told Carr that on joining the body they had been told that “students need to be on their guard really and are quite vulnerable and I can see what they meant by it”. A second said there was “abuse, grooming, preying” in a “boozy sexualised culture”.Outside conference, Carr said he had also heard allegations of sexual harassment in the RCN and that he noted “that they do to some extent support the impression that there is a culture of some senior individuals seeking to take advantage of subordinates and engaging in unwanted sexual behaviours”. Continue reading...
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