General news

• UK-backed battery firm Britishvolt considers entering administration

  31-10-2022 23:58 via theguardian.com
  Company struggling to find investors willing to fund effort to build giant £3.8bn ‘gigafactory’ in north-eastThe UK government-backed battery startup Britishvolt is on the brink of entering administration with the potential loss of almost 300 jobs, after it struggled to find investors willing to fund its effort to build a giant £3.8bn “gigafactory” in north-east England.The company had considered an administration as early as Monday, two sources with knowledge
  
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• Prosecutors accuse Trump Organization of ‘greed and cheating’ in tax fraud trial

  31-10-2022 23:56 via theguardian.com
  Lawyers argued the firm paid an executive $1.76m through perks such as free apartment, leased car and grandchildren’s tuition feesFor years, as Donald Trump was soaring from reality TV star to the White House, his real estate empire was bankrolling big luxury perks for some of his top executives.Now Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, is on trial for criminal tax fraud – on the hook for what prosecutors say was a 15-year scheme by his most trusted lieutenant to avoid payin
  
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• Oligarch renounces Russian citizenship over Ukraine war

  31-10-2022 23:17 via theguardian.com
  Oleg Tinkov, who has previously spoken out against the conflict, says he ‘won’t be associated with a fascist country’The billionaire banker and entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov has renounced his Russian citizenship because of the conflict in Ukraine, which he has previously criticised.“I have taken the decision to exit my Russian citizenship. I can’t and won’t be associated with a fascist country that started a war with their peaceful neighbour and killing innocent pe
  
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• Musk appoints himself CEO of Twitter as employees brace for mass layoffs

  31-10-2022 23:04 via theguardian.com
  Reports that Musk will let go of 25% of its workforce, or nearly 2,000 employees, come as tech billionaire overhauls companyElon Musk has appointed himself CEO of Twitter and dissolved its board of directors, it was revealed in a company filing on Monday, as Twitter employees brace for extensive layoffs under a new restructuring that could target up to a quarter of staff.The Washington Post reported on Monday that Musk’s team has been discussing letting go of 25% of the company’s wor
  
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• Taylor Swift becomes first musician to claim entire top 10 on Billboard Hot 100

  31-10-2022 22:46 via theguardian.com
  Singer has surpassed Drake, who had held the previous record with nine of the top songs for a week last yearTaylor Swift scored a 10 out of 10 to become the first artist in history to claim the top 10 slots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US, with tracks from her latest album, Midnights.Billboard reported on Monday that Swift has surpassed Drake, who had held the previous record with nine of the top 10 songs for a week in September 2021. Continue reading...
  
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• Paul Pelosi attack suspect charged with attempted kidnapping and assault

  31-10-2022 22:37 via theguardian.com
  Suspect who faces state and federal charges told police he wanted to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage and ‘break her kneecaps’The man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi, the husband of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, told police he wanted to hold the congresswoman hostage and “break her kneecaps”, authorities in California said on Monday afternoon.David DePape, 42, confronted a sleeping Paul Pelosi in the couple’s San Francisco townhouse bedroom shortly before 2.30am last F
  
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• Halloween: Thousands celebrate Londonderry Halloween finale

  31-10-2022 22:36 via bbc.co.uk
  About 100,000 people have attended the return of one of Europe's biggest Halloween parties.
  
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• I'm A Celebrity 2022: Mike Tindall, Boy George and Chris Moyles in line-up

  31-10-2022 22:35 via bbc.co.uk
  Ex-rugby star Mike Tindall, who is married to the King's niece, hopes to become king of the jungle.
  
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• Affirmative action appears in jeopardy after US supreme court hearing

  31-10-2022 22:24 via theguardian.com
  Race-conscious admission programs, twice upheld by highest court, now under scrutiny by skeptical conservative supermajorityThe survival of affirmative action in higher education appeared to be in serious trouble on Monday at a conservative-dominated US supreme court after hours of debate over difficult questions of race.The court is weighing challenges to admissions programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard University that use race among many factors in seeking a diverse student
  
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• Ex-soldier inquest: 'Veteran died after police Taser'

  31-10-2022 22:22 via bbc.co.uk
  His late girlfriend Victoria Key said in his final hours Spencer Beynon was "being irrational".
  
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• Papua New Guinea defeat Wales to set up England World Cup quarter-final

  31-10-2022 22:21 via theguardian.com
  Papua New Guinea 36-0 WalesWales eliminated after finishing bottom of Group DPapua New Guinea have certainly given England some food for thought. The nature of the hosts’ performances so far in the Rugby League World Cup meant that no matter what the Kumuls did here on a wet night in Doncaster, England were guaranteed to start Saturday’s quarter-final as favourites.But Stanley Tepend’s side will have left an impression on any England supporter watching here. The talk pre-match
  
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• Embattled Braverman insists she is not at fault for Manston crisis

  31-10-2022 22:15 via theguardian.com
  Home secretary says she never blocked hotels for refugees and was not to blame for overcrowding at refugee centreSuella Braverman has insisted she was not to blame for the crisis at Manston refugee centre, as she attempted to shore up her precarious political position by aggressively ramping up her rhetoric over immigration.The embattled home secretary claimed she had “never blocked” the use of hotels to ease pressure on the asylum processing centre in Kent or ignored legal advice on
  
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• Stamford Hill: Two girls injured in north-east London bus crash

  31-10-2022 22:13 via bbc.co.uk
  One of the young victims has life-threatening injuries, the Metropolitan Police says.
  
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• Suella Braverman challenges critics to oust her in asylum row

  31-10-2022 22:03 via bbc.co.uk
  The home secretary faces Labour claims she is unfit for office as she defends asylum policies.
  
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• Jamie’s £1 Wonders review – desperate proof of how far down Britain has slid

  31-10-2022 22:00 via theguardian.com
  The TV chef whips up crisis-budget meals, but his jolly shtick about poverty cuisine being a delight is jarring – even Jamie can’t make meals cheap enough for people with no cash to cook themSometimes it’s the little things that ram home how far downwards Britain has slid. If you are accustomed now to not being able to rely on the ambulance service or swim in the sea safely, and if you are numb to those studies suggesting that 50,000 or 130,000 or 330,000 people have been kille
  
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• Leaky Sue emerges from hiding with blame guns blazing

  31-10-2022 21:57 via theguardian.com
  The home secretary insisted nothing wrong had been done, but if it had, it was all someone else’s faultShe speaks! At last. For the last week or so, Suella Braverman has been rather kept under wraps. Not let out of the Home Office. Both for her own good and Rishi Sunak’s. It’s been left to ministerial colleagues Robert Jenrick and Jeremy Quin to answer urgent questions that were meant for the home secretary. Leaky Sue owes them both big time.But on Monday the hiding came to an
  
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• Panel criticizes Mexico for dropping arrest warrants in missing students case

  31-10-2022 21:42 via theguardian.com
  International group says it’s ‘incomprehensible’ why 21 of 83 arrest orders were dropped amid investigation into 2014 disappearanceAn independent panel has criticized Mexico for withdrawing arrest warrants, mostly for military members, in the investigation into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students, saying there was sufficient evidence to press charges.The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) said it did not know why 21 of 83 arrest orders were dropped just as
  
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• Tottenham must show their nasty side on date with destiny in Marseille

  31-10-2022 21:40 via theguardian.com
  Spurs need to park the anger over VAR and impose themselves from the off again to continue their Champions League journeyAs Tottenham prepare for a date with destiny – at the Stade Vélodrome against Marseille on Tuesday night – Antonio Conte cannot escape the feeling that it ought not to have come to this; his club’s qualification to the Champions League last 16 should already be secure.It was – at their own stadium last Wednesday; then it was not. And the fallout
  
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• UK battery firm Britishvolt averts collapse as funding secured

  31-10-2022 21:26 via bbc.co.uk
  There were fears Britishvolt could run out of money after the government refused to advance funding.
  
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• Russia recruiting Afghan special forces who fought with US to fight in Ukraine

  31-10-2022 21:23 via theguardian.com
  Russians want to attract thousands of former elite commandos who fear being returned to Taliban-controlled homeland from IranAfghan special forces soldiers who fought alongside American troops and then fled to Iran after the chaotic US withdrawal last year are now being recruited by the Russian military to fight in Ukraine, three former Afghan generals have told the Associated Press.They said the Russians want to attract thousands of the former elite Afghan commandos into a “foreign legion
  
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• Iran to hold public trials for up to 2,000 detained in protests

  31-10-2022 20:58 via theguardian.com
  The country’s judiciary says those marching against the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini will be triedIran’s judiciary has announced that it will hold public trials for as many as 1,000 people detained during recent protests in Tehran alone – and more than a thousand others outside the capital – as international concern grew over Iran’s response to the protests that began with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz,
  
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• Ben Jennings on Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat in Brazil – cartoon

  31-10-2022 20:30 via theguardian.com
  Order your own copy from Ben’s collection in the Guardian Print Store Continue reading...
  
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• Lucy Letby case: nurse ‘would not leave parents of dead newborn alone’

  31-10-2022 20:25 via theguardian.com
  Child C, who was born prematurely, was the second of the seven babies Letby is accused of killing at Countess of Chester hospitalA nurse accused of murdering seven babies would not leave alone the parents of a newborn boy she allegedly killed until she was ordered to do so by her supervisor, a court has heard.Lucy Letby is accused of murdering the infant days after he was born prematurely, weighing 800 grams, at the Countess of Chester hospital, on 10 June 2015. Child C is the second of the seve
  
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• Woman killed by ex feared losing access to child after reporting abuse, inquest told

  31-10-2022 20:14 via theguardian.com
  Janbaz Tarin subjected Raneem Oudeh to campaign of violence before killing her and her mother in Solihull in 2018A domestic violence victim who was stabbed to death by her former partner felt too scared to tell police the full extent of his abuse over fears that social services would take her baby away, an inquest has heard.Raneem Oudeh, 22, was killed along with her mother, Khaola Saleem, 49, in Solihull in August 2018 by Janbaz Tarin, who had subjected Oudeh to a campaign of abuse and stalking
  
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• The Guardian view on Tory immigration failures: from bad to worse | Editorial

  31-10-2022 20:06 via theguardian.com
  The degraded conditions at Manston in Kent and Suella Braverman’s rule-breaking should shame the governmentThe dreadful conditions at the Manston asylum seeker processing centre in Kent, combined with serious questions surrounding Rishi Sunak’s decision to reappoint Suella Braverman as home secretary, reveal a Conservative government whose immigration and asylum policies have failed. Opposition to immigration, much of it motivated by xenophobia, was weaponised by the Eurosceptic righ
  
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• The Guardian view on Lula’s comeback: good for Brazil and the world | Editorial

  31-10-2022 20:06 via theguardian.com
  The once-and-future leftwing president of Brazil has a chance to redeem the promise of democracy in his divided countryThe remarkable return of the leftwing politician Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for a third term as Brazil’s president is not just good for his country. His victory over the incumbent rightwing extremist, Jair Bolsonaro, is also good for the world. Since Mr Bolsonaro took office in 2019, forest fires and deforestation soared in the Amazon, with the federal government tur
  
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• Three teams and a Cilla Black gameshow: the first Women’s Rugby League World Cup

  31-10-2022 20:00 via theguardian.com
  A record crowd is expected at Headingley for the opening match of the Women’s Rugby League World Cup. The first tournament, in 2000, was very differentThe buildup, hype and buzz England’s women have experienced as they prepare for their tilt at the Rugby League World Cup could not be in greater contrast to the experiences of Jackie Sheldon and her squad of trailblazers 22 years ago.It may be a little over two decades but the journey women’s rugby league has been on during that
  
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• Musk’s takeover divides top Twitter users: flee the hate or stay and fight?

  31-10-2022 19:58 via theguardian.com
  Shonda Rhimes and Sara Bareilles are among celebrities leaving the platform, but others are struggling with the decisionTwitter isn’t shaping up to be the party Elon Musk might have expected. Not long after the Tesla CEO officially gained control of the app, many users have contemplated an exodus – while others are debating the merits of staying.Some celebrities and pundits made it clear they were on their way out. Shonda Rhimes, the TV writer and showrunner, was one of the first. &l
  
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• After a UPS worker’s suicide, employees disclose ‘tragic’ conditions at largest facility

  31-10-2022 19:56 via theguardian.com
  Revealed: UPS workers tell the Guardian that intense quota pressures, injuries, an unclean and unsafe environment and understaffing take a heavy tollThe article includes details surrounding a suicide.The gargantuan UPS Worldport is the largest automated packaging sorting facility in the world. Covering 5.2m sq ft in Louisville, Kentucky, with 70 aircraft docks and 155 miles of conveyor belts, the site is larger than the Mall of America, employs about 11,000 workers and is capable of handling 115
  
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• Home secretary: I did not veto advice on migrants - Braverman

  31-10-2022 19:48 via bbc.co.uk
  The home secretary is accused of declining advice on how to combat overcrowding in migrant centres.
  
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• For Elon Musk, Twitter is a time-wasting folly he doesn’t know what to do with

  31-10-2022 19:44 via theguardian.com
  Shouting about free speech was easier than actually managing a social media platform. Tesla’s shareholders must be looking on in horrorElon Musk has owned Twitter for less than a week and it is already clear that the world’s richest man has no firm idea of what he wants to do with his $44bn folly. The easy bit was firing a few top executives, including the chief executive and the person in charge of content moderation. The rest is a muddle.Musk has been combining platitudes (Twitter
  
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• Dover migrant centre: Police search house over fire attack

  31-10-2022 19:38 via bbc.co.uk
  The suspect, who was later found dead, is a 66-year-old from the High Wycombe area, police said.
  
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• Sinn Féin accuses DUP of creating 'political limbo'

  31-10-2022 19:34 via bbc.co.uk
  NI is currently without ministers after a legal deadline for the formation of government passed.
  
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• Blueprint for success or destined to fail? Key questions from LIV’s debut season | Ewan Murray

  31-10-2022 19:32 via theguardian.com
  Controversial tour’s first year is over with big names like Dustin Johnson and Cameron Smith now on board – but doubts still remainThe coaxing of big name players. The rationale behind this is hardly complicated – the deep pockets of Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund matter rather a lot – but nobody believed even 18 months ago that Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Phil Mickelson could ever perform on a domain beyond the PGA Tour
  
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• Russian assault on Ukraine’s power grid is the strategy of nihilism

  31-10-2022 19:26 via theguardian.com
  His bombs may not break Ukrainian resolve, but Vladimir Putin knows their damage will drive up the west’s costs• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updatesRussia’s cynical decision to target Ukraine’s network of hydroelectric power stations on Monday represents a further, dispiriting, escalation in its efforts to destroy the country’s power supply.The electricity network is reeling from three weeks of attacks focused on coal- and gas-fired power stations and, abo
  
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• Abortion clinic protesters may want to ‘comfort’ people, claims minister

  31-10-2022 19:13 via theguardian.com
  New women’s minister Maria Caulfield defends earlier decision to vote against buffer zones outside clinicsThe new minister for women has defended an earlier decision to vote against buffer zones outside abortion clinics, explaining she is concerned some people accused of harassment may be just trying to “comfort” people using the healthcare services.Maria Caulfield, who has also supported cutting the abortion time limit, was appointed as minister for women by the prime minister
  
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• UK ministers to scrap target of cutting 91,000 civil service jobs

  31-10-2022 19:09 via theguardian.com
  Graduate fast-stream recruitment to resume but jobs target could be replaced by budget cutsUK politics live – latest news updatesMinisters are planning to scrap the target of cutting 91,000 civil service jobs and resume recruitment of graduates through the fast-stream scheme in a reversal of Boris Johnson-era policies.Whitehall sources told the Guardian that the announcements were likely to be issued within the next few days in a letter to officials. Continue reading...
  
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• Manston migrant centre: What are the problems?

  31-10-2022 19:09 via bbc.co.uk
  Home secretary Suella Braverman is facing criticism over conditions at Manston migrant centre.
  
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• BBC confirms it will cut 48 jobs in local radio overhaul

  31-10-2022 19:04 via theguardian.com
  Move will dramatically reduce content made for specific stations and see focus switched to local programming from 6am to 2pmThe BBC has confirmed that it will cut 48 jobs as part of an overhaul of local radio that will dramatically reduce content made exclusively for specific stations. The plans, first reported on Sunday by the Guardian, are part of the BBC’s new strategy to focus on online content as part of a move towards a “modern, digital-led” broadcaster.
  The BBC said all
  
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• In brief: The Good Drinker; The Blue Flames; Exit Stage Left – reviews

  31-10-2022 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Adrian Chiles gives entertaining advice on moderation, AM Burrage’s spooky short stories get their dues and Nick Duerden tells of the tolls of pop stardomAdrian Chiles
  Profile, £14.99, pp251To order The Good Drinker, The Little Blue Flames, or Exit Stage Left go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply Continue reading...
  
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• ‘He adds a fear factor’: Marcus Smith happy to have Manu Tuilagi back

  31-10-2022 19:00 via theguardian.com
  England fly-half believes renewed partnership with centre can help side in autumn campaign that starts against ArgentinaMarcus Smith is reflecting on his first full year of playing for England, highlighting the importance of building relationships with teammates he sees sporadically during the season, when his eyes light up at the mention of Manu Tuilagi. The two have made three appearances together but off the field they have long since clicked. As Tuilagi prepares for a first England outing &n
  
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• Rishi Sunak may yet attend Cop27 climate summit, says No 10

  31-10-2022 18:55 via theguardian.com
  Situation ‘under review’ after days of criticism and revelation Boris Johnson is seeking to attendUK politics live – latest news updatesRishi Sunak may yet attend the Cop27 climate summit, Downing Street has said, as MPs and charities urged him to reverse his decision not to go to the gathering.The prime minister’s official spokesperson said the situation was “under review” after days of criticism and the revelation – first made in the Observer – t
  
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• Israeli election too close to call as Netanyahu bids for comeback

  31-10-2022 18:43 via theguardian.com
  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-elect
  
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• The UK terror survivors tracked down by ‘disaster trolls’

  31-10-2022 18:41 via bbc.co.uk
  Manchester Arena survivors are being hounded by conspiracy theorists who claim they are actors.
  
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• Israeli Arabs may be the last defence against Netanyahu’s return to power | Lloyd Green

  31-10-2022 18:38 via theguardian.com
  If too many abstain in the election on 1 November, the way could be clear for a coalition featuring Jewish supremacistsOn 1 November, Israel votes in a general election for the fifth time since spring 2019. Recent polls show that the country’s former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his rightwing coalition are just shy of clinching victory. Sixty-one seats in the Knesset, the 120-seat parliament, is the magic number. As fate would have it, Israeli Arab voters may determine the outco
  
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• Woman labelled ‘Erin Brockovich of Bradford’ after tribunal win

  31-10-2022 18:34 via theguardian.com
  Donna Patterson awarded £60,000 after representing herself in discrimination case against MorrisonsA woman who has been called the “Erin Brockovich of Bradford” for taking her employer to court without legal representation and winning has said she has been overwhelmed by the “unexpected” response.Donna Patterson, 38, was awarded £60,000 at a tribunal after arguing that the supermarket chain Morrisons had discriminated against her when she returned to work afte
  
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• Politicians are responsible for inequality in Britain. No wonder they blame refugees | Owen Jones

  31-10-2022 18:31 via theguardian.com
  The shameful scenes at Manston will be repeated as long as asylum seekers are scapegoated by ministers avoiding scrutinyActions have consequences. Britain’s political elite has for a long time decided to pander to – or deliberately stoke – bigotry against migrants and refugees. This is a joint enterprise with rightwing media outlets that have sought to portray some of the world’s most vulnerable people as a marauding mob, undeserving drains on resources and incompatible w
  
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• Giant rabbits ‘bred for meat’ looking for new homes after Northumberland rescue

  31-10-2022 18:30 via theguardian.com
  RSPCA rescues 42 Flemish giant rabbits that are now being cared for in several shelters across north-east EnglandDozens of giant rabbits – one of which weighs as much as a jack russell terrier – are looking for new homes after being “bred for their meat” on an allotment.The RSPCA rescued 42 Flemish giant rabbits in Ashington, Northumberland, which were found living in “dreadful conditions in cramped hutches, where they had been left to breed with each other”.
  
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• Leaders’ apathy towards climate crisis is proving deadly | Letters

  31-10-2022 18:26 via theguardian.com
  Muhammad Abubakar Pirzada on the existential threat that the global south faces, George Pitt on the need to reset emissions targets, and Terry Walsh on why Cop27 will be futileFloods recently ravaged Pakistan and plunged around one-third of its land mass into water, destroyed crops and brought a country of 225 million individuals nearer to a food insecurity crisis (World close to ‘irreversible’ climate breakdown, warn major studies, 27 October). Pakistan, a country that contributes l
  
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• Having more money doesn’t buy you more happiness | Letter

  31-10-2022 18:25 via theguardian.com
  One reader on their experience of living at both ends of the wealth scaleHaving read your article on money and happiness (How much money makes you happy? We ask an expert, 28 October), I couldn’t disagree more with the opening line: “Money can buy happiness – just ask anyone without it.” I’ve lived at both ends of the wealth scale: below the poverty line with my girlfriend (as she was then) and 10-month-old son in a tiny, damp and barely furnished bedsit, and, much
  
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