General news

• Projected results show rightwing SVP making gains in Swiss federal elections

  22-10-2023 23:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Party on track to win 29% of vote, an increase of almost 3.5 percentage points on 2019 after more than half of votes countedThe rightwing populist Swiss People’s party (SVP) was set to further strengthen its position as the largest political force in parliament, an early projection suggested, as voters appeared to back the party’s hardline stance against mass migration and what it called “woke madness”.The SVP was on track to receive 29% of the vote, an increase of nearly
  
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• Labour fears no-fault eviction ban will be delayed

  22-10-2023 23:31 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ministers maintain a new law will be brought in but Labour says they fear it could be watered down.
  
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• Parents of deaf children in Wales want free signing lessons

  22-10-2023 23:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  More than 2,600 people sign a petition calling for free British Sign Language lessons.
  
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• England restore faith but World Cup near miss signals the end of an era | Robert Kitson

  22-10-2023 23:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Team delivered most committed performance for four years but more flexibility is needed to overcome the best in worldThere is still one last remaining tango in Paris for both South Africa and England. The Springboks now have a delicious rendezvous with New Zealand in Saturday’s final, a showdown with all the ingredients to be a classic. England, meanwhile, have the less thrilling prospect of a “bronze final” against Argentina on Friday night, the rugby equivalent of a lukewarm
  
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• Swansea: Ambulance waits 28 hours outside Morriston Hospital

  22-10-2023 22:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Welsh Ambulance Service declares an extraordinary incident due to delays handing over patients.
  
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• Manchester City condemn fans for ‘offensive’ Bobby Charlton chants

  22-10-2023 21:39 via theguardian.com
  
  United legend’s death was announced during Brighton matchCity have apologised to family, now studying CCTV footageManchester City have condemned the chants that reportedly took place at the Etihad Stadium during half-time of Saturday’s Premier League game against Brighton after the news of the death of Sir Bobby Charlton.Tributes have been paid across the game to the former Manchester United and England great, whose death aged 86 was announced at 4pm on Saturday. A key member of Engl
  
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• Gaps in UK law allowing ‘jihad’ ‘known to government’

  22-10-2023 20:43 via theguardian.com
  
  Britain’s ex-head of counter-terrorism says government failed to act on a recommendation to change legislation Gaps in UK law that would allow words such as “jihad” to be shouted at rallies were known to the government but not acted upon, Britain’s former head of counter-terrorism has revealed.The comments from Neil Basu come as some ministers condemned police for their handling of weekend demonstrations in London, with the home secretary, Suella Braverman, due to meet th
  
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• Fort Nelson volunteers needed to man Victorian gun enactments

  22-10-2023 20:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The weaponry was regularly used for displays in Portsmouth, but has been silent since the pandemic.
  
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• Missing 16-year-old British girl was killed in Hamas attack, family says

  22-10-2023 20:28 via theguardian.com
  
  Noiya Sharabi confirmed dead along with sister, Yahel, and mother, Lianne, after raid on Israeli kibbutzIsrael-Hamas war: latest updatesA 16-year-old British girl who went missing after Hamas targeted an Israeli kibbutz was murdered during the attack along with her sister and mother, her family have said.Noiya Sharabi was feared kidnapped after the 7 October attack on Be’eri kibbutz in which her 13-year-old sister and mother were killed. However, on Sunday her family told the BBC that she
  
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• Pro-Israel protest in London calls for return of hostages

  22-10-2023 20:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Demonstrators hold photos of Israelis held in Gaza since the 7 October Hamas attacks.
  
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• Pressure grows on Israel to negotiate release of Gaza hostages

  22-10-2023 20:13 via theguardian.com
  
  Families given glimmer of hope by release of two US citizens, but fear time is running out before ground invasionIsrael-Hamas war: latest updatesPressure has intensified on Israel to negotiate the release of more than 200 people held by Palestinian militants in Gaza, with desperate families begging officials to help free their loved ones before an anticipated ground invasion.An Israeli military spokesperson announced on Sunday that more than 212 people were held in Gaza, as officials worked to i
  
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• Storm Babet flooding sees severe warnings as hundreds evacuate

  22-10-2023 19:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Residents of 500 Nottinghamshire homes are among those told to move, as communities across the UK endure more flooding.
  
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• Douglas Luiz shines as Aston Villa see off West Ham with a flourish to go fifth

  22-10-2023 19:51 via theguardian.com
  
  Unai Emery can celebrate his first anniversary in charge of Aston Villa on Tuesday safe in the knowledge that he has turned his team into contenders to be considered among the best of the rest. Only Manchester City – the champions and leaders – Arsenal and Liverpool have gained more wins over this period and, with Douglas Luiz continuing his unlikely conversion into a prolific goalscoring midfielder, Villa sashayed to within two points of the top.Only Newcastle have scored more Premi
  
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• Arrest after pedestrian critically injured in Birmingam

  22-10-2023 19:46 via bbc.co.uk
  
  West Midlands Police says the victim suffered life-threatening injuries.
  
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• Police name woman who was swept away during storm

  22-10-2023 19:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The body of Wendy Taylor, 57, was recovered from the Water of Lee in Angus on Thursday.
  
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• The Guardian view on Germany’s troubled ‘traffic-light’ coalition: dealing with the midterm blues | Editorial

  22-10-2023 19:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition needs to treat recent state elections in Bavaria and Hesse as a wake-up callMidterm electoral verdicts on incumbent administrations can be unsparing. But elections this month in Germany’s Bavaria and Hesse states were notable for delivering a particularly savage one on the country’s governing “traffic-light” coalition.In the red corner, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) recorded the party’s worst ever res
  
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• The Guardian view on edible art: let them eat cake – and digest its meanings | Editorial

  22-10-2023 19:25 via theguardian.com
  
  A feminist cake sculpture still has resonance nearly five decades after it was first createdIs art eternal? Bobby Baker’s forthcoming installation at Tate Britain is built not to last. But it also confirms that the best work endures. The gallery is presenting a restaging of her influential 1976 cake sculpture, An Edible Family in a Mobile Home. Visitors are invited not only to touch but to literally consume the work, in the form of five lifesize family members made of biscuits, meringue an
  
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• Autumn statement: Government considers help for first-time buyers

  22-10-2023 19:24 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Treasury is understood to be considering extending a low deposit mortgage scheme for a year.
  
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• Chesterfield: Son speaks of heartbreak after mum dies in flooding

  22-10-2023 19:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Paul Gilbert says he found his mother Maureen dead in her house in Chesterfield on Saturday.
  
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• Why Hamas’s murderous attack on Israel was predictable | Letter

  22-10-2023 19:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Hamas’s evil actions are not an expression of resentment and fury, but designed to avoid any possibility of coexistence, says Jeremy HavardiSeán Boyle says that the Hamas attacks of 7 October, while never justified, were “predictable”, given that “oppressed and dispossessed people will vent their resentment and fury, often in brutal and savage ways” (Letters, 17 October). The murderous violence was indeed predictable, but not for the reasons cited by Mr Boyle
  
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• Labour will need the stay-at-home voters who swung last week’s byelections | Letters

  22-10-2023 19:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Harry Gilonis responds to the party’s success in recent byelections by pointing out that the Labour vote barely grew since 2019. Plus letters from Katy Jennison, James Coldwell, Keith Flett, Daniel Peacock and Shawn PearsonI see that Keir Starmer has said that Labour is “redrawing the political map” (Report, 20 October); I am not so sure. In Tamworth, Labour’s Sarah Edwards got barely 800 more votes than the Labour candidate in 2019; and in Mid Bedfordshire, Alistair Stra
  
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• Hamas hostages: Families 'worried sick' for relatives held in Gaza

  22-10-2023 19:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  British-Israeli woman calls on the UK government to do "everything in its power" to secure their release.
  
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• Tory donors from JCB empire could face £500m bill to settle tax inquiry

  22-10-2023 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: HMRC investigation into peer Anthony Bamford and his brother focuses on offshore trusts that own business empireThe influential Tory donors behind the JCB digger empire could be hit with a bill for more than £500m to settle a longrunning investigation by HM Revenue and Customs, the Guardian can reveal.The investigation into Anthony Bamford, a Tory peer, and his brother Mark, the director of a subsidiary of the Conservative party, is understood to span a complex network of offsho
  
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• Rishi Sunak faces backbench discontent a year into his time in No 10

  22-10-2023 18:55 via theguardian.com
  
  PM under pressure from Tory right for more tax cuts and from moderates for policies to tackle cost of living crisisRishi Sunak is facing discontent among his backbenchers as he heads into the one-year anniversary of his time in No 10, with Jacob Rees-Mogg calling for the government to wake up from a “torpor”.The prime minister is under pressure from rightwingers for tax cuts and more Conservative policies, while moderates are pushing for more centre-ground plans that deal with the co
  
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• Family of missing UK teen say she was murdered in Hamas attack

  22-10-2023 18:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Noiya Sharabi, 16, disappeared after Hamas attacked Kibbutz Be'eri, killing her mother and sister.
  
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• New ITV rules require staff to ‘declare relationships with colleagues’

  22-10-2023 18:13 via theguardian.com
  
  Policy reportedly includes sexual relationships and friendships, and launch follows Phillip Schofield’s resignation over workplace affairITV has drawn up strict new rules requiring staff to declare all relationships with colleagues – which could even include friendships – in the wake of Phillip Schofield’s resignation earlier this year over a workplace affair, according to a report.The This Morning presenter quit after admitting that he had lied about an “unwise, bu
  
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• Ben Jennings on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza – cartoon

  22-10-2023 18:09 via theguardian.com
  
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• British Steel owner preparing to cut as many as 2,000 jobs, report says

  22-10-2023 17:57 via theguardian.com
  
  China’s Jingye Group said to be considering move as part of switch to using greener electric arc furnacesBritish Steel’s Chinese owner is preparing to cut as many as 2,000 jobs as it battles losses believed to be running at £30m a month, according to reports.The potential cuts, which amount to almost half of the Scunthorpe-based firm’s 4,500 workforce, are part of a switch to greener steel production using electric arc furnaces instead of polluting blast furnaces, which u
  
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• UK must offer businesses certainty over green energy, says boss of FTSE 100 firm

  22-10-2023 17:44 via theguardian.com
  
  Miles Roberts of packaging-maker DS Smith warns manufacturing will decline unless government provides clarity about decarbonisationThe UK risks seeing its manufacturing sector fall behind rival economies if the government does not offer certainty over policies on shifting to green energy, according to the head of FTSE 100 packaging maker DS Smith.Miles Roberts, the company’s chief executive, said British government decarbonisation policy has lacked the clarity of European rivals, meaning D
  
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• Russian missile strike on Kharkiv postal centre kills six people, officials say

  22-10-2023 17:17 via theguardian.com
  
  Ministry of internal affairs says 16 injured in attack on civilian site in Ukrainian cityRussia-Ukraine war – latest news updatesSix people have been killed and 16 injured after Russian missiles struck a postal distribution centre in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region, local officials have said.The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, shared a video on Saturday night showing what appeared to be a heavily damaged warehouse surrounded by rubble and red trucks with the words No
  
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• Three men bailed following INLA funeral in Derry

  22-10-2023 17:10 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The men were later released as inquires continue into events around the funeral of an INLA member.
  
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• Sir Patrick Stewart makes surprise Woodstock Bookshop visit

  22-10-2023 16:48 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The actor dropped into The Woodstock Bookshop when he saw copies of his memoir in the window.
  
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• Rishi Sunak submits plans for fence around country home after protest

  22-10-2023 16:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The move follows a rooftop protest by Greenpeace activists earlier this year.
  
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• As Gaza is bombed and starved, the Arab world is watching – and it’s angry | Nesrine Malik

  22-10-2023 16:23 via theguardian.com
  
  There is something about the protests that isn’t really about Palestine: a rage that has been suppressed but could yet eruptA few years after the end of Lebanon’s civil war, when the country seemed like one that had buried its past of conflict for ever, I heard an interview on the BBC with a Lebanese woman from Beirut that has stayed with me for 30 years. She was asked if the country, then a flourishing cultural hub that seemed to take over the Arab airwaves and satellite TV almost o
  
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• Should I worry about being tired all the time?

  22-10-2023 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Is modern life making us ill – or are we just a little underslept?Zonked, frazzled, drained, pooped, knackered, running on fumes – or just totally exhausted. In much the same way that the Shona-speaking people of Zimbabwe have a dozen verbs for walking, our modern vocabulary seems to have developed 20 ways of explaining that we are quite tired, most of the time. But is there anything about 21st-century life – our screen addictions, side-hustle culture or always-on mindsets &nda
  
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• Stampy's Lovely World: 1.7m say farewell to YouTube series

  22-10-2023 15:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Joseph Garrett, better known as Minecraft's Stampy Cat, broadcasts his final episode in the series.
  
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• Luton Airport Fire: Cars to be removed to stabilise car park

  22-10-2023 15:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The airport's shuttle link is also operating again after the fire forced the service's suspension.
  
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• Relief of South Africa shows just how close England came to victory in Paris | Andy Bull

  22-10-2023 15:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Saturday came down to tiny margins. Unpicking England’s puzzle took the defending champions to the edge of reasonParis was quiet on Sunday morning. The rain had stopped at last and the wind, which had bent the trees and swept the leaves through the streets the previous evening, had died right down. The street cleaners were only just sweeping up the detritus of the night – ripped tickets, empty bottles, cigarette ends, cracked plastic glasses – and things that would be missed: h
  
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• Search off Ramsgate for man reported overboard from cruise ship

  22-10-2023 15:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Coastguard aircraft and RNLI lifeboats search for the crew member off the coast at Ramsgate.
  
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• Remains of Sycamore Gap tree moved to secret site over trophy hunter fears

  22-10-2023 15:20 via theguardian.com
  
  National Trust seeks to prevent Berlin Wall-like souvenirs after several people reportedly caught trying to take piecesThe tree that once graced and gave its name to Sycamore Gap has been cut up and its pieces held at a secret location because of fears it will go the way of the Berlin Wall, chunks of which were looted by trophy hunters, the National Trust has said.Police have reportedly caught several people trying to take pieces of the wood, while several legitimate attempts to claim it for pur
  
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• Yorkshire flooding: Catcliffe residents feel abandoned by authorities

  22-10-2023 15:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Emergency services evacuated 250 people in Catcliffe near Rotherham.
  
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• Calls for strategy on ‘social prescribing’ in England amid youth mental health crisis

  22-10-2023 15:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Every pound spent helping children get community support could save nearly twice as much in long term, says Barnardo’s reportEvery pound spent on helping young people access activities and support in the community could save nearly twice as much in dealing with longer-term mental health problems, according to new analysis.The children’s charity Barnardo’s is urging the government to introduce a national strategy for “social prescribing” for young people in England a
  
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• Twenty years after Mum died, I still don’t know how to mark the day | Emma Beddington

  22-10-2023 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Like it or not, I know that emotion is waiting to ambush me. Perhaps it’s time to face it head on – with a cup of teaIt’s 20 years this week since my mother died. That’s preposterous but also, apparently, factually accurate. My elder son was one and he turned 21 this spring (God, she loved him ferociously and would have loved my younger son, whom she never met, just as much yet differently, because she was good at that). It’s not that it feels recent, more as if it
  
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• Hollesley Bay: Three prisoners abscond in one day prompting search

  22-10-2023 14:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Suffolk Police warn the public not to approach the men and contact officers if they see them.
  
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• A break dance off and a Halloween dog parade: photos of the weekend

  22-10-2023 14:31 via theguardian.com
  
  The Guardian’s picture editors select photo highlights from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• No blank cheque for Wales rail services, minister warns

  22-10-2023 13:54 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Wales' rail operator won't receive a "blank cheque" for future funding, economy minister says.
  
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• Tax cuts will be considered if inflation falls, cabinet minister says

  22-10-2023 13:24 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Robert Jenrick says PM Rishi Sunak has the "right priorities" despite his party's by-election losses.
  
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• Beavers saved from drowning in Frome storm drain

  22-10-2023 13:20 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Rescuers responding to reports of a trapped otter were surprised to find a pair of young beavers.
  
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• Wacky world of baby names: guess how much mine cost?

  22-10-2023 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Some parents are paying up to $30,000 for a ‘doula’ to create a bespoke moniker for their offspringTaylor Humphrey can find you a baby name that fits your family’s personal brand, but it might cost you $30,000. That is the top end of what a package with the US-based baby-name consultant costs. Fortunately, she also offers a more accessible option for $350 and, for customers who are willing to share their experience of her service on social media, a $150 discount on any subseque
  
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• Exhausted Amazon staff fight back against retail giant at global UK summit

  22-10-2023 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Meeting in Manchester is part of worldwide action – including Black Friday protests – over tax, market abuse and workers’ rightsIt was about 3am on a night shift in May last year when Amazon worker Christine Manno tried to retrieve a box stacked high in the warehouse in St Peters, Missouri. She was 30ft in the air, strapped to a harness and standing on the edge of the raised platform of a truck.She was recovering from operations on her injured hands for carpal tunnel syndrome,
  
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