General news

• UK foreign aid being spent in Britain passes £4bn mark, experts say

  28-10-2022 23:59 via bbc.co.uk
  The government spends more of the aid budget at home than on direct help overseas, estimates indicate.
  
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• Inquests to probe deaths of 13 more patients of butcher breast surgeon

  28-10-2022 23:56 via express.co.uk
  Thirteen more inquests were opened yesterday into the deaths of former patients of disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson.
  
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• 'You think twice about driving': Fuel prices rise again

  28-10-2022 23:34 via bbc.co.uk
  The rise in diesel and petrol prices is having a particularly tough impact in rural areas.
  
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• Olivia Pratt-Korbel: Further arrest in murder probe

  28-10-2022 22:00 via bbc.co.uk
  A man is arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender over the murder of the nine-year-old.
  
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• Elon Musk’s Twitter is going to be a disaster | Hamilton Nolan

  28-10-2022 22:00 via theguardian.com
  Musk probably bought Twitter for the same reason billionaires throughout history have become press barons: to try to control the conversationTwitter is free. You can go on there and type your embarrassing little thoughts for the whole world to see any time you like. Millions of us have been doing this for years. Revealing to everyone how dumb your inner thoughts are may cost you your reputation, sure, but it won’t cost you any money. Not even if you’re the richest man in the country.
  
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• Suspected Russian spy arrested in Norway spent years studying in Canada

  28-10-2022 21:41 via theguardian.com
  Man posing as Brazilian academic José Assis Giammaria thought to have used his time in the country to build up a deep-cover identityA suspected Russian spy who posed as a Brazilian academic before his arrest this week by Norway’s domestic security agency spent years studying at Canadian universities with a focus on Arctic security issues.The man, who called himself José Assis Giammaria, worked as researcher at the University of Tromsø and was arrested on suspicion he h
  
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• Met records its highest ever number of female police officers, figures show

  28-10-2022 21:35 via theguardian.com
  Metropolitan police said its female officer representation is 30.4%, equating to 10,386 officersBritain’s biggest police force has its highest ever number of female officers, new figures show.The Metropolitan police said its female officer representation is 30.4%, equating to 10,386 officers, as of the end of September 2022. The force said it aims to increase the proportion to 33% by the financial year of 2023/2024. Continue reading...
  
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• Another arrest made in Olivia Pratt-Korbel murder investigation

  28-10-2022 21:17 via theguardian.com
  Merseyside police said a man had been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender and was being questioned by detectivesA man has been arrested in connection with the murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in Liverpool.Olivia was fatally shot in the chest at her home in Dovecot, Liverpool, on 22 August. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Like a thoroughbred race horse’: inside the high-speed, high-stakes world of pigeon racing

  28-10-2022 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Champion birds can command massive prices, but those who spend their lives training them do it for the love – not moneyGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastDown a quiet dirt road, deep in Sydney’s west, sits a clubhouse. The exterior is nondescript – a big shed clad with corrugated iron. But inside lies a cave of wonders, a treasure trove of trophies and honour rolls and scoreboards scrawled in chalk, with cages galore in every corner. It is
  
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• Caged: Indonesia’s songbird trade – in pictures

  28-10-2022 21:00 via theguardian.com
  More than 20 million songbirds are traded illegally in Indonesia each year and poaching is rife to meet demand, especially on Java. Photographer Paul Hilton followed the trade through south-east Asia, documenting the affect on bird numbers in the region Continue reading...
  
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• Jerry Lee Lewis – a life in pictures

  28-10-2022 20:22 via theguardian.com
  The pioneering rock’n’roller has died at the age of 87 after a career that saw him rise to the top yet struggle to remain out of troubleJerry Lee Lewis, US rock’n’roll star, dies aged 87Continue reading...
  
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• Windrush compensation scheme beset by slow repayments to victims

  28-10-2022 20:02 via theguardian.com
  Simon Murray, official overseeing programme, said he is concerned at the number of people who have died before receiving anythingVictims of the Windrush scandal have expressed frustration at the slow progress of the compensation scheme at the first national conference of a coalition of grassroots organisations fighting for justice for those affected.The newly appointed Home Office minister Simon Murray stressed that improvements have been made to the compensation scheme for the Windrush scandal,
  
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• UK councils slashing services to meet £3.2bn budget shortfall

  28-10-2022 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Inflation, energy prices and Liz Truss’ mini-budget are contributing factors to cuts local leaders described as unprecedentedLibraries and children’s centres are closing and home pick-ups for young disabled people being cancelled as councils try to meet a £3.2bn budget shortfall next year.With inflation and energy prices eating into budgets, local authorities across the UK are facing a record black hole that is unlikely to be plugged by central governmentas the Treas
  
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• Dog owners issued horror warning as 'perfect storm' set to put pups at risk

  28-10-2022 20:00 via express.co.uk
  Calls are being made to restrict the use of fireworks to spare dogs the trauma caused by the pyrotechnics.
  
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• The Guardian view on the climate crisis: no end in sight | Editorial

  28-10-2022 19:30 via theguardian.com
  The globally agreed target of 1.5C is on track to be missed. For those working to prevent disaster, the only option is to keep tryingThe world is falling into an “abyss of risk”, said Prof Johan Rockström of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Reports published this week by three UN agencies all point to the failure of governments to make – and keep – sufficient commitments to ensure that global temperatures will not rise by more than 1.5C a
  
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• The Guardian view on Korean soft power: harder than it looks | Editorial

  28-10-2022 19:25 via theguardian.com
  Pop music and TV shows might not sound like a serious business, but public diplomacy matters – whatever form it comes inSquid Game gripped viewers in 94 countries, becoming the most watched Netflix show ever. The Oxford English Dictionary added 26 Korean words. The K-pop band BTS has topped charts internationally and met Joe Biden at the White House this summer. After sweeping through Asia years ago, hallyu – the “Korean wave” of culture – has crashed upon western s
  
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• ‘Tired of broken promises’: Sunak risks ‘losing faith of nation’ over pension triple lock

  28-10-2022 19:20 via express.co.uk
  Roy Baldwin, an 86-year-old former copywriter, has had enough of Government U-turns - and he's not the only one voicing their concern over the Government's pension plans.
  
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• Scottish Labour vows to ‘bring people together’ over gender recognition reform

  28-10-2022 19:05 via theguardian.com
  Opposition says it can assuage bill’s critics as SNP supporters fear more amendment attemptsScottish Labour has pledged to “bring people together” over the issue of gender recognition reform after an intense Holyrood debate on proposals to make it easier for transgender people to change their legal sex that saw the Scottish National party suffer its biggest backbench revolt in 15 years of government.Although the gender recognition reform bill easily passed the first of three le
  
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• Trick or treat? Our love/hate relationship with a US-style Halloween | Letters

  28-10-2022 18:49 via theguardian.com
  Readers recall the origins and simpler pleasures of Halloween celebrations, before the Americanisation of the festivalTim Dowling’s entertaining and informative article (‘It’s become a real monster!’: How Britain fell for Halloween, 27 October) missed one aspect of Halloween: the suspension of ordinary laws, which occurs in the spring and autumn festivals, as measured by the calendar ending one half-year and beginning the next.This is why we still have budgetary accountin
  
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• Mahek Bukhari murder trial: TikTok star 'told pack of lies to police'

  28-10-2022 18:40 via bbc.co.uk
  A court hears Mahek Bukhari denied any involvement in the death of her mother's former lover.
  
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• Northern Ireland secretary plays for time by failing to name election date

  28-10-2022 18:34 via theguardian.com
  Chris Heaton-Harris obliged to call new poll after deadline to restore devolved government expires The Northern Ireland secretary has announced he will call an election for the Stormont assembly but refused to name a date.Chris Heaton-Harris said on Friday he would do his “legal duty” to call an election within 12 weeks and promised to give more detail next week after talks with Northern Ireland party leaders. Continue reading...
  
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• Finally, victims of child abuse like me have a voice | Letter

  28-10-2022 18:33 via theguardian.com
  A reader praises the Truth Project for acknowledging how she suffered at the hands of her abuser and the police who failed to protect herZoe Williams’ excellent article on the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse quotes some of those who participated in its Truth Project (What kind of society fails to protect children? British society. Here’s the proof, 20 October).I am one of them, identified as Barbara. I was abused by a family member when I was 10 years old. The police foun
  
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• Sunak is the best choice the Tories could have made – but Labour can still beat him | Jonathan Freedland

  28-10-2022 17:54 via theguardian.com
  Keir Starmer may have preferred to face Mordaunt or Johnson, but the new prime minister has plenty of vulnerabilitiesPublicly, they said they feared no one. When Labour MPs were asked a week ago which of the three would-be successors to Liz Truss looked hardest to defeat, they shrugged off the question, insisting that Boris Johnson, Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak were all as weak and beatable as each other. But whatever the outward show, the truth is Labour got the Conservative leader that, at f
  
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• Britain’s first Hindu prime minister is destroying Tories’ pitiful vision of diversity | Pankaj Mishra

  28-10-2022 17:20 via theguardian.com
  We should quickly abandon wishful thinking in order to be truly ready for Rishi SunakThe world has watched in appalled fascination as the UK’s ruling party scrapes the bottom of its human resources barrel: it found there its first Black chancellor of the exchequer and then, to clear up his mess, its first Hindu prime minister. Yet exultant noises from India as well as Britain would make us believe that some historic milestone has been reached.Hindu supremacists have pounced on the possibil
  
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• Labour demand answers to Suella Braverman’s ‘growth visa’ leak reports

  28-10-2022 17:19 via theguardian.com
  Rishi Sunak needs to clarify whether his home secretary’s security breach contained market sensitive data, Labour saysUK politics live – latest news updatesRishi Sunak needs to clarify whether Suella Braverman leaked market-sensitive data before she resigned and then was reappointed as home secretary, Labour said on Friday.Amid further warnings that her re-appointment was a mistake, Pat McFadden, a shadow Treasury minister, said the prime minister needed to clarify urgently whether c
  
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• ‘Detached from reality’: Trevor Noah’s view of racist Sunak ‘backlash’ divides opinion

  28-10-2022 17:17 via theguardian.com
  Authors and politicians have accused the US comedian of projecting an American cultural context on to the UKThe row began with a single call to a UK radio station, was stoked by one of America’s best-known comedians and ended with former cabinet ministers wading in – and Downing Street, too.At the heart of the furore: a claim that Rishi Sunak had experienced a racist “backlash” after becoming the UK’s first British-Asian prime minister. Continue reading...
  
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• How bad is the gender reform rebellion for the SNP?

  28-10-2022 16:52 via bbc.co.uk
  A government minister quit over the proposals with another eight SNP MSPs also defying the party whips.
  
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• Woman, 22, told she is 'obese' by doctors despite being a UK size 10

  28-10-2022 16:20 via express.co.uk
  Regan Ellis, 22, was put on weight loss medication to bring down her BMI despite being a UK size 10 and weighing 11st12lb.
  
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• Rishi Sunak – if you’re serious about fixing the British economy, invest in childcare | Stella Creasy

  28-10-2022 16:00 via theguardian.com
  A cost of childcare crisis is forcing parents – mostly mothers – out of the workplace. Now we’re taking the fight to the streetsAs the new prime minister burnishes his family man credentials, mothers this weekend are highlighting that when it comes to this government, their needs are getting the same worrying lack of attention that Bing’s friend Pando gets when he keeps taking his trousers off. With childcare costs reaching up to two-thirds of their income, women of chil
  
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• Glasgow climate march and Cologne in autumn: Friday’s best photos

  28-10-2022 15:08 via theguardian.com
  The Guardian’s picture editors select photo highlights from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Croydon Hospital: Patient tells PM to pay NHS staff more

  28-10-2022 14:32 via bbc.co.uk
  Rishi Sunak is told he is needs to "try harder" over plans to give pay rises to hospital staff.
  
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• Pokémon still going: Taiwan’s love affair with the game the world forgot

  28-10-2022 14:20 via theguardian.com
  Global use of Pokémon Go has plummeted, but its popularity remains undimmed among Taiwan’s young and oldWe can’t show you Tsai’s face. The 52-year-old is busily swiping away at six phones in a custom-built usher-style tray. Charging cords snake off into a backpack full of powerbanks. The elaborate setup is designed to maximise his Pokémon Go experience, ensuring he’s always in hunt-mode.Tsai started in 2016 with just one phone, but says six is the perfect nu
  
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• UK government delays clean water and nature targets, breaching Environment Act

  28-10-2022 14:04 via theguardian.com
  Thérèse Coffey says targets underpinning nature recovery will not be published this monthThe government has delayed publication of clean water and biodiversity targets, putting it in breach of its Environment Act, ministers have admitted.Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, published a written ministerial statement on Friday confirming that the targets underpinning the country’s nature recovery would not be released on 31 October as promised. Continue read
  
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• Aldi increases staff pay for third time this year as cost of living soars

  28-10-2022 13:46 via theguardian.com
  Minimum rate of £11 an hour puts it above Lidl and back at top of supermarket wage leagueAldi is increasing pay for its workers for the third time in a year with a new minimum rate of £11 an hour, putting it back at the top of the supermarket pay league.The UK’s fourth largest grocer is upping pay by 50p an hour – or almost 5% – for about 26,000 staff from January, announcing the increase just over a month after its last rise, in September, when shop workers’
  
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• Morrisons shoppers vow to boycott supermarket over price of Nescafe

  28-10-2022 13:42 via express.co.uk
  When Angela Howells-Owen noticed the price of the Nescafe Gold Alta Rica at Morrisons, she left and bought it elsewhere.
  
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• ExxonMobil’s record-breaking $20bn profit nearly matches Apple’s

  28-10-2022 13:36 via theguardian.com
  Oil company’s third-quarter result smashes Wall Street forecasts – as does Chevron’s £11.2bnThe US oil supermajor ExxonMobil has reported a quarterly profit of nearly $20bn (£17.3bn), $4bn more than analysts had forecast, almost matching the earnings of the tech giant Apple.Exxon’s $19.7bn profit for the third quarter outstripped the record $17.9bn it reported for the previous quarter, as it became the latest fossil fuel producer to enjoy soaring earnings, a d
  
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• ‘It’s my frontline and I won’: the chef putting Ukrainian cuisine back on the map

  28-10-2022 12:29 via theguardian.com
  Ievgen Klopotenko won Unesco recognition for borscht – just one battle in his wider campaign to revive traditional recipesIn a war, there are many different fronts, and many different forms of resistance. Ievgen Klopotenko, a Ukrainian chef, is fighting his war with soup.In defiance of the Russian cruise missile and drone attacks that have hit Kyiv recently, Klopotenko, 35, was last week presiding over his bustling city centre restaurant. On the menu were dishes such as beetroot and herrin
  
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• Generous pensioner mugged by thugs after buying them a cup of tea in McDonald's

  28-10-2022 11:18 via express.co.uk
  The pair have 439 previous convictions between them.
  
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• The cult of Putin in Serbia reflects a nation that has still not dealt with its past

  28-10-2022 11:00 via theguardian.com
  In this, one of a series of essays on the war in Ukraine from countries in or neighbouring the former Soviet bloc, a Serbian poet decries the glorification of Russia’s aggression“Ukraine attacks Russia!” was the surreal headline on a report in the 22 February edition of Informer, Serbia’s biggest-selling tabloid. That headline was not a one off, it was an expression of the Putinophilia that has been strong in Serbia for years. As most of the world condemned Russia’s
  
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• Energy bill fears as winter looms on the edge of Scotland

  28-10-2022 07:20 via bbc.co.uk
  Many people living in remote communities are concerned about the impact of rapidly rising prices.
  
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• 'I was groomed and exploited at parties aged 14'

  28-10-2022 07:08 via bbc.co.uk
  A charity warns missing children are at risk of sexual exploitation, as school absence numbers rise.
  
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• War hero or war criminal? Australia’s defamation trial of the century – podcast

  28-10-2022 04:00 via theguardian.com
  Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated living soldier, is seeking to defend his reputation against reports in three newspapers that he says falsely accuse him of being a war criminal. Ben Doherty reportsIn his closing submissions in Australia’s federal court in Sydney, the barrister of the country’s most decorated living soldier argued: “This trial, which has lasted over 100 days, has been called a great many things: the trial of the century, a proxy war crimes tri
  
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• 'I wouldn't bring a member of my family to this hospital,' says medic

  28-10-2022 02:20 via bbc.co.uk
  Gloucestershire Royal has some of England's worst ambulance waiting times, with a hard winter to come.
  
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• Can you dress up for Halloween without hurting the planet?

  28-10-2022 01:34 via bbc.co.uk
  How influencers are combatting the environmental costs of fast fashion Halloween costumes
  
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