General news

• BBC makes financial settlement with Andrew Flintoff over Top Gear crash

  13-10-2023 23:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Former England cricket captain was hurt while filming the motoring show at its test track last DecemberThe BBC has reached “an agreement” with Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff after he was involved in a crash while filming Top Gear, the corporation has said.The former England cricket captain, 45, appeared with facial injuries in public for the first time in September, nine months after he was taken to hospital after he was hurt while filming the BBC motoring show at its test tra
  
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• Drivers' fury at bus lane 'car trap' that has damaged and written off 'dozens' of vehicles

  13-10-2023 23:46 via express.co.uk
  
  Motorists in Cambridge are apoplectic with rage at the council's slits in the road.
  
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• Horrifying moment when rats jump out of the bin as workers worry about the plague

  13-10-2023 23:38 via express.co.uk
  
  Union members are now claiming that the issue has been getting worse since the pandemic and Glasgow's West End is now the "epicentre" of a modern day rat plague.
  
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• Liquor store in tiny California town to get $1m for selling billion-dollar lottery ticket

  13-10-2023 23:20 via theguardian.com
  
  The Midway Market & Liquor in Frazier Park will get a cut for selling the winning ticket of the second-largest Powerball drawing everJanea Herrera, a clerk at a southern California convenience store, first thought it was a joke when she was told that a winning lottery ticket was sold at the store. And it wasn’t just any ticket. It was the winning ticket for the $1.765bn Powerball, which someone had bought at the Midway Market & Liquor in Frazier Park, a small town north of Los Ange
  
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• Dad horrified after finding his Amazon parcel delivered covered with ‘poo’ and 'wet wipes'

  13-10-2023 23:01 via express.co.uk
  
  Paul Fullerton, who lives in Ormskirk, was expecting a delivery from Amazon on Thursday. However, he had to call the police after he found his parcels.
  
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• Uncanny review – you’ll shriek in fright! (At this paranomal show’s nonsense)

  13-10-2023 23:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Are you ‘team skeptic’ or ‘team believer’? Danny Robins’ TV adaptation of his paranormal investigations podcast promises analytical rigour and balance. But it’s deeply theatricalAre ghosts real? Indulging the idea has created countless powerful works of fiction exploring grief, terror and other dark quirks of the mind. Try to pin down the cold fact of the undead’s existence, however, and a story soon collapses. So it is with Uncanny, ostensibly a series
  
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• Ollie Watkins strike gives England scrappy win over Australia

  13-10-2023 22:53 via theguardian.com
  
  There is unlikely to be any diversion from the tried and trusted when England return to Wembley to face Italy in qualifying for Euro 2024 on Tuesday. If Gareth Southgate was hoping to come away from this win over Australia with selection dilemmas, a disjointed display will surely only have left him even more certain about who will be in his starting XI in Germany next summer.Not that there were no positives for Southgate to draw from a night including a clean sheet for Sam Johnstone, Ollie Watki
  
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• Talking Horses: Jesse Evans offers each-way option in Cesarewitch | Greg Wood

  13-10-2023 22:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Noel Meade’s dual-purpose gelding has been in the form of his life this year and could be in the mix at NewmarketIreland’s increasing supremacy in National Hunt racing has extended to the Cesarewitch, the Flat’s most historic stayers’ handicap, in recent seasons and runners from top Irish jumping yards dominate the betting once again before the 2023 running at Newmarket on Saturday.Pied Piper, third in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham in 2022 and a close second in the Cou
  
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• Louise Glück, Nobel prize-winning poet, dies at 80

  13-10-2023 22:48 via theguardian.com
  
  Pulitzer prize winner and former US poet laureate was known for her sharp, austere lyrical workLouise Glück, the Nobel prize-winning author and a former poet laureate of the United States, has died at the age of 80.Her death was confirmed Friday to the Associated Press by Jonathan Galassi, her editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Continue reading...
  
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• Cash-crisis foodbanks can’t cope with demand

  13-10-2023 22:35 via express.co.uk
  
  Cash-strapped charities are being forced to make "heartbreaking" decisions to turn away those who need help, research reveals.
  
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• The war between Israel and Hamas – the week in pictures

  13-10-2023 22:16 via theguardian.com
  
  How seven days of terror have been captured by photojournalists in Israel and GazaWarning: this gallery contains images that some viewers may find distressing Continue reading...
  
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• Steve Borthwick’s England reach point of definition against Fiji

  13-10-2023 22:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final in Marseille will have a lasting effect on not just the team, but the wider English gameFor better or worse the defining game of England’s World Cup campaign is nigh. Beat Fiji on Sunday and they can relocate up to Paris for the rest of the tournament with heads held high. Lose and it will be the end of a hugely pot-holed road, with frustrated supporters entitled to ask how much progress has ultimately been made over the past two tumultuous years.The
  
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• ‘Extremely rare’ Jurassic-era fossils discovered in Lake Powell

  13-10-2023 21:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Tritylodonts, mid-sized mammal-related herbivores, roamed the area’s deserts 200m years agoScientists have discovered an “extremely rare” set of fossils at Lake Powell that the National Park Service (NPS) is calling one of the most important vertebrate discoveries in the US this year.The findings, revealed this week, include skulls and teeth from dozens of mid-sized, mammal-related herbivores called tritylodonts that once roamed the region’s vast desert. The bones lay hid
  
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• France on high alert after suspected radical Islamist kills teacher

  13-10-2023 21:52 via theguardian.com
  
  Prime minister Élisabeth Borne says country will be on ‘urgent’ terrorist alert until level of risk establishedFrance has been put on its highest level of security alert after a suspected radical Islamist killed a teacher and injured three others in the north of the country.The prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, said on Friday night that the country would be on “urgent” terrorist alert for a limited time while the level of risk was established. Continue readin
  
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• Boris Johnson says Israel has a 'duty' to eliminate Hamas

  13-10-2023 21:41 via express.co.uk
  
  Israel has declared war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas after it carried out an unprecedented attack on Saturday.
  
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• Scientists Could Use Lenses to Make Roads on the Moon - PetaPixel

  13-10-2023 21:32 via news.google.com
  
  Scientists Could Use Lenses to Make Roads on the Moon  PetaPixelMoon highways could be carved using giant beam of ‘focused sunlight’ – and experiment reveals what it’ll lo...  The SunScientists could use lasers and mirrors to melt the moon's surface into roads  TechSpotWill The Moon Soon Have Roads? What We Know  News18This Is How Roads Could Be Built on the Moon  NewserView Full coverage on Google News
  
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• Titanic salvage plan scrapped after Titan implosion killed mission head

  13-10-2023 21:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Paul-Henri Nargeolet was onboard the ill-fated submersible that was likely crushed by the ocean earlier this year, killing all five crewThe company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic shipwreck has cancelled plans to retrieve more artefacts from the site because the leader of the upcoming expedition died in the Titan submersible implosion, according to documents filed in a US district court this week.The decision could affect a looming court battle between the company and the US governme
  
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• Ukrainian saboteurs sneak behind enemy lines to blow up ammo train in huge blow for Russia

  13-10-2023 20:43 via express.co.uk
  
  This incident marks the 10th successful railway sabotage operation in the occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast carried out by Ukrainian resistance fighters.
  
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• You can now create AI images with text in Search thanks to Google Search Generative Experience - Chrome Unboxed

  13-10-2023 20:41 via news.google.com
  
  You can now create AI images with text in Search thanks to Google Search Generative Experience  Chrome UnboxedGoogle Search's latest AI tricks turn your words into images  Android PoliceHow to create generative AI images from Google Search  Laptop MagHow to use Google Search’s new Dall-E-like AI image generator  The Indian ExpressHow to Generate AI Images in Google Search With a Text Description  MUO - MakeUseOfView Full coverage on Google
  
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• Shelling on south Lebanon border kills one journalist and injures six

  13-10-2023 20:21 via theguardian.com
  
  Shell, reportedly Israeli, struck group of international journalists covering clashes at borderIsrael and Hamas at war – live updatesA group of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon have been hit by shelling, with one killed and six injured. The Associated Press and Al Jazeera said the weapon was an Israeli shell.Reuters said: “We are deeply saddened to learn that our videographer Issam Abdallah has been killed. Issam was part of a Reuters crew in
  
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• Jim Jordan emerges as House speaker nominee but doesn’t have votes to win

  13-10-2023 20:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Congressman, endorsed by Trump and McCarthy, defeated surprise candidate Austin Scott, who had barely campaignedRepublicans in the US House of Representatives scrambled to find a new speaker on Friday as Congressman Jim Jordan won an internal vote but with a margin that suggests the disarray is far from over.Jordan, endorsed by former president Donald Trump and ex-speaker Kevin McCarthy, defeated a surprise candidate, Austin Scott of Georgia, who had barely campaigned. Continue reading...
  
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• Swifties flock to Leicester Square as Taylor Swift’s box office smash lands in UK

  13-10-2023 20:03 via theguardian.com
  
  The Eras Tour, filmed over three nights in California stadium, likely to become biggest grossing concert movie in historyTaylor Swift, having conquered the music world, is planning to do the same at the box office, with the pop juggernaut’s new concert film expected to be the highest-grossing movie in UK cinemas this weekend.Excited “Swifties” flocked to the Odeon Leicester Square in London for the opening night screening on Friday, gathering outside an hour in advance, eager f
  
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• An Alabama woman was imprisoned for ‘endangering’ her fetus. She gave birth in a jail shower

  13-10-2023 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Ashley Caswell, one of a growing number of jailed pregnant women in Etowah county, is suing officials after she was denied careIn March 2021, sheriffs in Etowah county, Alabama, arrested Ashley Caswell on accusations that she’d tested positive for methamphetamine while pregnant and was “endangering” her fetus.Caswell, who was two months pregnant at the time, became one of a growing number of women imprisoned in the county in the name of protecting their “unborn
  
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• NASA launches Psyche mission to rare metal asteroid - Sky News

  13-10-2023 19:54 via news.google.com
  NASA launches Psyche mission to rare metal asteroid  Sky NewsNASA launches mission to metal asteroid - Latest From ITV News  ITVXNASA's Psyche Mission is off to Asteroid Psyche  Universe Today$10,000-quadrillion asteroid will soon meet NASA's Psyche mission  Earth.comLift-off! NASA chases Psyche Asteroid  HT TechView Full coverage on Google News
  
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• Dancing dreams: 25 stunning scenes at Sadler’s Wells – in pictures

  13-10-2023 19:49 via theguardian.com
  
  This month, Sadler’s Wells celebrates the quarter centenary of its current building in Islington, north London, which was remodelled in 1998. Revisit 25 shows from those years Continue reading...
  
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• BMA in secret talks with government to end strikes by NHS consultants

  13-10-2023 19:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Deal on table would give consultants another 6% rise on top of the 6% Rishi Sunak described as finalGovernment officials and doctors’ leaders are holding secret talks with the aim of ending strikes by hospital consultants before the start of the NHS’s winter crisis.In a remarkable move, the deal under discussion would give consultants in England a hefty further pay rise for this year in return for calling off their stoppages. That is despite Rishi Sunak’s previous insistence th
  
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• Police issue 24 fines to Tory lockdown rule-breakers after boozy Christmas party

  13-10-2023 19:44 via express.co.uk
  
  The police has issued 24 Fixed Penalty Notices after Shaun Bailey's team were caught having a lockdown-breaking Christmas party.
  
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• Seagulls force Venice’s Marco Polo airport to close briefly

  13-10-2023 19:43 via theguardian.com
  
  A number of flights delayed or redirected after unusually large number of birds ‘invade’ the runwayVenice’s Marco Polo airport has been forced to close briefly after an unusually large number of seagulls “invaded” the runway, leading flights to be delayed or redirected.Various tools were deployed to ward off the gulls on Friday morning, including a falconer and an acoustic deterrent, according to Save, the airport’s management company. Continue reading...
  
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• Nicola Jennings on the innocent people caught up in the Israel-Gaza war – cartoon

  13-10-2023 19:40 via theguardian.com
  
  Continue reading...
  
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• The Guardian view on the austerity delusion: economies cannot cut their way to growth | Editorial

  13-10-2023 19:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Economics is a religion where rhetoric persuades voters to believe bad policies can have good resultsPaul Krugman, the Nobel prize-winning economist, warned a decade ago against thinking about budget deficits in terms of “bond vigilantes” and “confidence fairies”. He said politicians – mostly, though not exclusively, on the right – argued that unless governments cut their deficits, bond vigilantes would pressurise them by forcing up interest rates. But if they
  
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• The Guardian view on podcasts: intimate conversation is now going to the masses | Editorial

  13-10-2023 19:25 via theguardian.com
  
  A media disruptor that started life as a source of bespoke entertainment has found its way back into the communal space through live performanceThere was a time when the podcast was the new brat on the block: everyone could see it was a disruptive presence but nobody was sure how seriously to take it, or how long it would stick around. That was nearly 20 years ago. It has since grown up and owned its space so successfully that everyone wants a bit of it.This summer, a YouGov survey found that 50
  
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• Israel’s darkest day: the 24 hours of terror that shook the country

  13-10-2023 19:25 via theguardian.com
  
  As dawn broke last Saturday over the 40-mile Gaza-Israel barrier, once confidently described as an “iron wall”, Hamas struck at the eyes and ears of Israel’s defence. It was shortly before 6.30am at the end of a Sukkot week of holiday when explosive devices, dropped from above by drones, made a mockery of past claims of impregnability by disabling the wall’s communication towers and its remote-controlled machine gun posts, while snipers picked off sensors and cameras, bli
  
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• We’re ready to rip up our flag-waving Labour membership cards | Letters

  13-10-2023 19:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Readers respond to Zoe Williams’s article about the redesign of the card, which now includes the union jack and the words ‘country first’ on one sideLike Zoe Williams (I will never leave Labour – but my new membership card makes me uneasy, 9 October), I was disconcerted to be alerted to the ersatz patriotism of the new Labour membership card, with its incorporation of the union jack. On the reverse, the new heading “country first” dominates.I understand the in
  
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• NHS gender care delays ‘contributed’ to trans woman killing herself, coroner says

  13-10-2023 19:18 via theguardian.com
  
  Alice Litman had been waiting more than three years to receive gender-affirming healthcare when she died in May 2022Lengthy waiting lists and significant barriers that prevent transgender people accessing gender-affirming care in the UK contributed to a decline in the mental health of a young trans woman who killed herself, a coroner has concluded.Sarah Clarke, the assistant coroner for West Sussex, Brighton and Hove, on Friday delivered a narrative verdict at the end of the inquest into Alice L
  
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• Our hearts ache, but we must not give in to despair | Letters

  13-10-2023 19:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Guy Naamati, a former resident of Kibbutz Re’im in Israel, shares a poem he wrote in response to the Hamas attack, while another reader describes the pain of seeing atrocities brushed off or even justifiedI live in Cambridge, but I’m originally from Kibbutz Re’im in Israel, not far from the site of the festival massacre last weekend. My parents, sisters and young niece and nephews were there during the attack, but thankfully they are safe. Many others weren’t so fortunate
  
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• Texas voting map discriminates against Black and Latino residents, judge rules

  13-10-2023 19:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Federal judge strikes down new electoral map in Galveston county, calling it ‘stark and jarring’ violation of Voting Rights ActA federal judge has struck down a new electoral map in Galveston county, Texas, in an excoriating ruling that berates the Republican commissioners for committing a “stark and jarring” violation of the Voting Rights Act.Judge Jeffrey Brown of the southern district of Texas found that the redistricting map adopted by Galveston’s Republican com
  
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• Police issue 24 fines for Covid breaches at Tory party attended by Shaun Bailey

  13-10-2023 19:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Met initially took no action but reopened inquiry after video showed staff drinking alcohol and dancingThe Metropolitan police have recommended 24 fixed-penalty notices be imposed for breaches of Covid rules at a pandemic-era Christmas party held by the campaign team of a Conservative peer.Officers initially decided to take no action over the December 2020 gathering at the Conservative headquarters (CCHQ), despite a photograph showing the then mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey amid a crowd of appar
  
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• Unassuming Alastair Cook exits quietly but his excellence speaks for itself

  13-10-2023 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The former England captain enjoyed five more years at Essex after retiring from Test duty, a rare feat among internationalsSir Alastair Cook’s exit from first-class cricket was not so spectacular as his departure from the international game. Five years ago, he signed off with a century against India in front of a full house at the Oval. His farewell to domestic cricket last month was at a damp, autumnal, sparsely inhabited Northampton in a match that his beloved Essex, in a forlorn pursuit
  
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• Hospital beds, scalped tickets and illicit booze: India sets up for Pakistan

  13-10-2023 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Fans have been booking medical procedures to guarantee a bed for the night while the price of admission and alcohol have rocketed in ‘dry’ AhmedabadFan interest has peaked in a manner that can only be described as madness to witness the universe’s biggest cricket match at the world’s largest cricket venue.The capacity of the cavernous Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is anything from 100,000 to 132,000, depending on whom you believe. The Gujarat Cricket Association, who
  
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• Fairytale ending for Tomkins as he brings down curtain against Wigan

  13-10-2023 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Sam Tomkins will play the final match of his career for Catalans Dragons in the Super League Grand Final against the club where he began playing nearly 15 years agoThere are undoubtedly plenty of opportunities awaiting Sam Tomkins when his glittering playing career comes to an end on Saturday evening. But, given the manner in which the past few months have played out, he would be well inclined to consider script-writing: not even Hollywood could have predicted the way this particular story has d
  
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• Prisons plan could add 2,600 places in England and Wales amid overcrowding

  13-10-2023 18:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Use of portable buildings and more doubling up in cells could be part of package to be announced next weekPrisoners in England and Wales could be moved into portable buildings or released early as part of a huge extension of the electronic tagging scheme, as the justice secretary considers creative measures to solve the overcrowding crisis.Alex Chalk KC is expected to reveal a package of measures on Monday that could add 2,600 prison places across the estate, the Guardian understands. Continue r
  
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• ‘If we are smiling nothing can stop us’: Fiji out to make a nation proud

  13-10-2023 18:51 via theguardian.com
  
  The Pacific islanders are fired up for a quarter-final clash with an England side whose resources dwarf their ownScroll back through Semi Radradra’s Instagram feed, past the snaps of the Fijian team celebrating their win over Australia, commiserating after their defeat to Wales, further, past their warm-up fixtures, the victory against England at Twickenham in August, the loss to France in Nantes the week before. Further still, through the Pacific Nations Cup, and their wins over Samoa in
  
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• Amanda Knox to face new trial in Italy over slander conviction

  13-10-2023 18:50 via theguardian.com
  
  Knox had been found guilty of defamation for wrongly accusing Patrick Lumumba of murdering Meredith KercherItaly’s top court has ordered a retrial after Amanda Knox appealed for the dropping of the slander conviction she received for wrongly accusing a bar owner of murdering the British student Meredith Kercher.Knox, an American who, along with her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, spent four years in prison after initially being convicted of the murder, made the request on the basi
  
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• Ireland take on New Zealand task in occasion dripping with significance

  13-10-2023 18:33 via theguardian.com
  
  Andy Farrell’s No 1-ranked side hope to end a run of seven defeats in seven Rugby World Cup quarter-finals on SaturdayAsk any rugby player if the past matters and you generally get the same answer. It contains two letters and begins with “N”. It’s not about revenge, or previous results between the teams, or indeed what the history books say. That has been the theme, listening to coaches and players alike, in the buildup to Ireland’s tectonic plate-shifting quarter-f
  
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• Postcard from Patagonia: ‘We will cheer for Argentina, but in Welsh’

  13-10-2023 18:23 via theguardian.com
  
  This Welsh community in Argentina will have divided loyalties while watching from the other side of the worldSpring is in the air in Patagonia and daffodils are beginning to bloom, a visual reminder to the community of their Welsh roots, a legacy of the 153-strong contingent of intrepid settlers who landed on the east coast of southern Argentina in 1865.It is the time of year, too, when backpackers and tourist numbers start to rise, travelling the several hundred miles south of Buenos Aires to s
  
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• Thorpe Park apologises to locals after blaring Halloween sound effects all night

  13-10-2023 18:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Theme park played wails, screams and spooky music for 12 hours, prompting one man to put ear defenders on his dogThorpe Park has been forced to apologise to nearby residents after it kept them awake all night by blaring Halloween sound effects – with one local putting ear defenders on his dog.The theme park in Chertsey, Surrey, played wails, screams and spooky music for 12 hours straight after a technical glitch led to noise from its Fright Night event continuing into the early hours. Cont
  
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• UK’s top civil servant said government looked like ‘tragic joke’ during pandemic

  13-10-2023 18:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Expletive-laden messages between No 10 staff shown at Covid inquiry lament government decision-making and role of Carrie JohnsonThe UK’s most senior civil servant, Simon Case, described the government as looking like a “terrible, tragic joke” in its handling of the Covid pandemic in expletive-laden WhatsApp messages handed to the Covid inquiry.The messages – which are likely to prompt questions over Case’s professionalism – also lamented that Boris Johnson&rsq
  
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• ‘Where is humanity?’: Humza Yousaf’s mother-in-law sends tearful video from Gaza

  13-10-2023 18:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Elizabeth El-Nakla travelled fromScotland last week to visit family in Gaza and first minister says she is now trappedIsrael and Hamas at war – live updatesThe mother-in-law of Scotland’s first minister, who is trapped in Gaza, has asked “where is humanity”, as she described conditions in the Palestinian territory under Israeli bombardment.In a video posted online from a settlement in the centre of the Gaza Strip, Elizabeth El-Nakla pleaded for help, saying: “Where&
  
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• Runaway asteroid Rooney emerges at Birmingham as a genuine survivor | Barney Ronay

  13-10-2023 18:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Football chewed up and spat out Wayne Rooney but his appointment at St Andrew’s shows he still loves the gameThere were some excellent bits in the David Beckham documentary, which was genuinely absorbing despite feeling at times like two hours of really good clips of football, music and beautiful people from the 1990s, padded out with another two hours of sombre, auteurish close-ups of current-day Beckham thinking about things.Just give us more bits where a wired-looking Rio Ferdinand says
  
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• SEC to require short selling data after softening proposed rule - Financial Times

  13-10-2023 17:55 via news.google.com
  
  SEC to require short selling data after softening proposed rule  Financial TimesUS Securities and Exchange Commission issues new mandate for hedge funds to report short sales  The Australian Financial ReviewNew US SEC rules to shine a light on short selling  The Edge MalaysiaSEC Adopts Changes to Schedule 13D and Schedule 13G  Foley & Lardner LLPSEC Mandates Hedge Funds To Disclose Short Positions Following GameStop Frenzy - GameStop (NYSE:GME) &n
  
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