The Guardian - October 19, 2024

In this issue

October 19, 2024

Calls to regulate therapists as claims of abuse surge

Rules 'needed to stop psychotherapists working without qualifications'

4 mins

Proposed 4% budget increase for NHS 'won't cut waiting lists'

The NHS is set to get an inflation-busting 4% rise in its budget next year but health chiefs are warning it may not allow them to cut waiting lists for another 18 months, the Guardian has learned.

3 mins

Fuel duty Rise of up to 7p per litre expected after budget

Fuel duty is expected to rise by up to 7p per litre after the budget, with speculation intensifying that the chancellor will restore inflationary rises as well as ending the temporary cut.

2 mins

Income tax 'Stealth' freeze on thresholds beyond 2028

Rachel Reeves is expected to extend a \"stealth\" freeze on income tax thresholds beyond the 2028 deadline set by the previous Conservative government to raise billions of pounds at the budget.

1 min

‘You can see the money’ Hollywood is banking on Gladiator II

A full-scale model of the Colosseum, flooded and filled with longboats. A two-tonne, eight-wheeled, life-sized rhino that can spin, snarl, wag its head and do 40mph. And as much minced beef, sweet potato and personal training as Paul Mescal can stomach.

2 mins

Book borrowed before first world war returned a century overdue

A book borrowed from a school library before the first world war has been returned - a century overdue.

1 min

‘Our champion’ Pelicot opens up global conversation on sexual violence

She has been hailed as a feminist hero across France, commended for her courage at rallies across the country and applauded by supporters every time she enters or leaves the courtroom in the southern city of Avignon.

4 mins

London mayor urges primary schools to tackle misogyny

Combating the \"pernicious influence\" of misogynists such as Andrew Tate in primary schools is a vital part of teaching children about equality, Sadiq Khan has told teachers.

1 min

Nigerian nurses urge Streeting to help clear up 'unjust' test cheating claims

A group of more than 100 Nigerian nurses have called on the health secretary to help them correct \"a significant injustice\" after the nursing regulator accused them of cheating in tests to practise in the UK.

3 mins

Wind warning as first storm of season closes in on Britain

The UK will be hit by winds of up to 80mph this weekend as the first named storm of the season approaches.

1 min

Staff who want to work from home should quit, Amazon boss suggests

A senior Amazon executive has suggested staff who do not like a new company policy of working in the office five days a week should quit.

2 mins

Pregnant woman and unborn child die in crash with police car

The death of a heavily pregnant woman and her unborn child who were in a collision with an unmarked police car is being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

1 min

New Bram Stoker story found that foreshadows Dracula

In a Dublin library frequented by James Joyce and WB Yeats, beneath a turquoise and white domed ceiling and surrounded by oak shelving, Brian Cleary stumbled across something by the author of Dracula, Bram Stoker, he believed no living person had ever read.

2 mins

Hamas vows to continue fight and says conditions for ceasefire unchanged

Hamas acknowledged the death of its leader, Yahya Sinwar, but vowed yesterday to keep fighting, in the face of international calls for an immediate ceasefire.

4 mins

The final moments Sinwar's death and the trainee soldiers who found him

The Israeli soldiers who came across Yahya Sinwar and his two bodyguards were trainee squad commanders from an infantry school unit. The fact that it was a platoon from the infantry commanders and combat training school (Bislamach) that found the Hamas commander and mastermind of the 7 October attacks is all the more ironic in light of the fruitless year-long manhunt by the cream of Israel's special forces and intelligence units.

2 mins

Hostages Netanyahu still puts own political fate before lives

On Thursday afternoon a lifeguard at a beach in Tel Aviv made an announcement. “Attention all bathers,” he said. “It is not yet 100% confirmed ... but the chances are very high that the rat from the tunnels known as Yahya Sinwar is dead.”

2 mins

Hamas What next for them after death of its leader Yahya Sinwar?

Hamas is seeking to frame the death of its leader, Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza as a victory. It is emphasising how the 62-year-old veteran died on Thursday fighting on the frontline, armed and wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh, and how the organisation has survived for 37 years despite the assassination by Israel of a series of its leaders.

2 mins

In Gaza, hopes of pause in violence fade as IDF sends in more troops

Israel has launched new airstrikes and sent more troops into action in Gaza, dashing brief hopes among some in the territory that the killing of the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, could bring an end to the conflict.

3 mins

West Bank violence puts olive harvest at risk, says UN

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are facing an increase in Israeli settler attacks and Israeli army violence at the start of the olive harvest season, the UN said yesterday.

2 mins

'This is to displace us' Southern Lebanon reels from Israeli strikes

Hussein Jaber, the head of Nabatieh's civil defence station, picked his way through a mess of shattered concrete and twisted metal piled knee high, surveying what was left of the city's Ottoman open-air market, built in 1910 and destroyed by Israeli airstrikes last Saturday.

3 mins

Boy, 17, given life term for attacking pupils as they slept

A teenager who attacked two sleeping pupils and a teacher with hammers at a private school in Devon has been given a life sentence and must serve a minimum term of 12 years, after being found guilty of attempted murder.

2 mins

Labour 'to legalise harmful way of carrying chickens'

Labour is using its first animal welfare policy since entering government to dilute standards by legalising the harmful practice of carrying chickens by their legs, charities have said.

1 min

One Direction stars left 'completely devastated' by Liam Payne's death

Liam Payne's One Direction bandmates have said they are \"completely devastated\" by his death and will miss the singer \"terribly\".

1 min

'It was bittersweet' BBC's Mr Loverman stirs emotions among older black gay men

The phrase \"TV moment\" is used a lot but for viewers unused to seeing their lives reflected on screen, Mr Loverman was more than that.

2 mins

Pick a side What the two Tory candidates stand for - and who backs them

As the race for the Conservative leadership enters its final stage, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick are pushing back against the idea that the party faces a limited choice between two candidates of the same populist rightwing stripe.

5 mins

Quarter of UK summit investments 'not secured by Labour'

A quarter of the investment announced by the government at its flagship investment summit this week appears to have been secured or initiated before the Labour government came to power.

3 mins

SNP Party CEO steps down after poll defeats

The chief executive of the Scottish National party, Murray Foote, unexpectedly quit yesterday “in the best interests of the party” after its worst election defeat in nearly two decades.

1 min

Charities will be returned to 'centre of national life', says culture secretary

Charities should criticise the government if they disagree on policy areas such as immigration or the environment, the culture secretary said yesterday as she announced plans to restore civil society organisations to \"the centre of our national life\".

2 mins

Carey asks faith leaders to back 'compassionate and principled' assisted dying bill

George Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, has urged Church of England bishops in the House of Lords to back a parliamentary bill on assisted dying, saying that in the past \"church leaders have often shamefully resisted change\".

5 mins

Baby dies after refugee boat capsizes in the Channel

A baby has died after a boat carrying people across the Channel towards Britain capsized off the French coast.

1 min

Music review The Cure are back - and worth the wait

The latter-day history of the Cure is a peculiar thing. They ended the 90s in apparent disarray, yet the 21st century found them more revered than ever. You couldn't move for younger artists paying homage: everyone from heavy metal bands to dance producers seemed to want to collaborate with the band's frontman, Robert Smith. It was a kind of renaissance, but the Cure seemed unable to fully capitalise on it. They always drew vast crowds, but an album to rank alongside their back catalogue's high points proved elusive, and you wondered how many people were at their gigs to hear stuff from their eponymous 2004 album or 2008's 4:13 Dream, both sprawling and uneven. Thereafter, gigs came flecked with new songs but the release schedule fell silent.

2 mins

Man accused of jail escape 'jovial' when police caught him, court told

A former soldier \"congratulated\" the police officer who captured him three days after he was accused of escaping from prison, a jury has heard.

1 min

Stop-start exercising It may be good for you, but can this strategy work for me - and my dog?

Let me start by saying that I am not looking for ways to be more tired. I'm tired enough. However, a new study suggesting that exercise punctuated by frequent breaks requires more energy than \"steady-state\" exertion has a certain counterintuitive attraction: I can exercise better by resting more.

2 mins

Farewell tour? King's first visit to Australia as monarch revives republican rumblings

As the king arrives in Australia for the first time as head of state, republican rumblings are once more on the media radar.

3 mins

Girls play outside less than boys even at two years old, study finds

Girls play outside in nature less than boys even at the age of two, according to the first national survey of play among preschool-age children in Britain.

2 mins

Home Office seeks to clear huge backlog of modern slavery cases

The Home Office has recruited 200 staff to clear a backlog of 23,300 modern slavery cases left by the last government, a minister has told the Guardian.

2 mins

Are you sitting comfortably? You will be in HS2's seats, say designers

For now, it is not clear how far passengers will be able to travel on future HS2 services - whether reaching Euston or all the way to Crewe. But a peek at HS2's embryonic carriages reveals travellers will be enthroned in “the best seats of any UK trains” - even, arguably, in the toilets.

1 min

Spice traders from Beckham to Oprah: how hot sauces got even hotter

First came tequila. Then rosé. Now the latest celebrity-backed brand isn't booze, but a hot sauce.

2 mins

Ethical minefield US startup charging couples to 'screen embryos for IQ'

US startup company is offering to help wealthy couples screen their embryos for IQ using controversial technology that raises questions about the ethics of genetic enhancement.

5 mins

Man found guilty of rape and manslaughter of woman in London

A man has been convicted of the rape and manslaughter of a woman while she lay unconscious on a park bench in west London after a night out.

2 mins

Bella Freud's 'personality-packed' M&S collection sells out in a day

Marks & Spencer launched its much-anticipated collaboration with the cult designer Bella Freud on Thursday and had sold out of the vast majority of items in the 27-piece collection by yesterday afternoon.

1 min

Stop the shouting Armani: 'calm' style is secret to my success

“There is too much shouting in fashion today,” said Giorgio Armani, who is one the few global household names in fashion. At 90, he retains sole control of his company with a fortune estimated by Forbes to be $12.1bn (£9.3bn). He added that a “calm rather than loud” style had been the secret of his success, before a catwalk show in Manhattan.

2 mins

Let down by politics and football, but at least my dog is a bouncy miracle

Herbie is now 13 years old. Which, depending on how you measure it, makes him somewhere in his 80s in dog years. For his last birthday, friends gave him some treats that claim to improve his joints. Now, I took glucosamine for years in a bid to make my knees marginally less creaky and never noticed any improvement.

4 mins

TV review A triumph of sex, excess, and fabulous awfulness

Welcome to Rutshire!\" announces Lizzie (Katherine Parkinson), one of its calmer denizens and the only one with enough time between champagne-quaffing and nethers-slapping to ease a new family's passage into the bonkers, bonking Cotswolds set with conventional niceties. And what a welcome it's been!

2 mins

Landlords 'pose bigger fire risk to Dartmoor than wild campers'

Wild camping is not a significant fire risk on Dartmoor, new data shows, despite claims by a landowner who has been trying to ban the practice.

1 min

Conservationists call for rare acid grassland in Essex to be protected from housing plan

It is the second-best place for nightingales in the country, a sanctuary for rare barbastelle bats and home to nearly 1,500 invertebrate species, including a quarter of all Britain's spider species. But Middlewick Ranges on the edge of Colchester in Essex is set to be sold by the Ministry of Defence for 1,000 new homes.

2 mins

‘Scramble for the oceans’ Countries race to name and claim the remote seabed

“The sea does not belong to despots,” Jules Verne wrote in 1869 in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

4 mins

Graphic alert on climate Terrifying French hit makes debut in English

When France's best-known climate expert sat down to work with its most feted graphic novelist in 2019, the result was a terrifying comic bestseller. Part history, part analysis, part vision for the future, World Without End weaves the story of humanity's rapacious appetite for fossil fuel energy, how it has made possible the society we take for granted, and its disastrous effects on the climate. It was an immediate smash hit with French readers, selling more than 1m copies so far and becoming France's top-selling book in all categories in 2022.

3 mins

Harris calls out 'fascist' Trump as race teeters on knife-edge

With just half a month to go, the US presidential election is deadlocked, as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump jockey for any advantage in ways that illuminate their stark political differences, with Harris announcing a plan to campaign with the Obamas, as Trump doubled down on threatening his enemies.

2 mins

Latino voters More back Trump despite his anti-migrant policies

Dan Soza has seen the harsh realities of Donald Trump's immigration policies up close - and he's alarmed that many Latino voters in Saginaw do not take the former president's threats of mass deportations seriously.

1 min

Texas court grants stay of execution to father in 'shaken baby' case

The Texas supreme court has blocked the execution of a man on death row in a late-night ruling on the day of the scheduled lethal injection.

3 mins

Russian MPs back ban on promoting child-free lives

A law that would ban \"propaganda\" seeking to promote a child-free lifestyle has cleared its first hurdle in Russia's lower house of parliament, gaining unanimous approval among lawmakers who want to increase the country's birthrate.

2 mins

Moldovans head to polls to decide if the future lies with Russia or the west

Moldovans head to the polls tomorrow for a presidential election and an EU referendum that will mark a pivotal moment in the tug-of-war between Russia and the west over the future of the small, landlocked south-eastern European country with a population of 3 million.

3 mins

Italy’s deal to 'offshore' migrants in Albania hampered by court ruling

The last 12 asylum seekers being held at a new Italian migration hub in Albania must be transferred to Italy, a court has ruled, in a heavy blow to a controversial “offshoring” deal between Rome and Tirana aimed at curbing migrant arrivals in the European Union.

1 min

Fury at plan to expand new Guggenheim into reserve

A large and almost comically sinister fish named Guggenheim is on the loose in and around the ancient Basque town of Guernica, its jaws perilously close to snapping shut on a twitchy-looking tiddler called Urdaibai.

3 mins

Enough already The Tokyo company that resigns for you

Mari was just two months into her new job when she decided she had had enough. The position at an online bank in Tokyo, found through a staffing agency, had looked like a perfect fit for the 25-year-old, a member of Japan's legions of temporary workers. But she quickly became despondent.

2 mins

Election Can Japan's Liberal Democrats hold on to power?

Bruised by financial scandals, a cost-of-living crisis and unpopular leaders, Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP), which has been in office for most of the past seven decades, might have been expected to be nearing its end.

2 mins

Tomb finds at Petra are thrilling - but what do they really reveal?

For one of the most famous ancient sites on the planet, there is a surprising amount about the city of Petra - and the Nabataean people who built it - that we don't know for sure.

2 mins

Ex-spy for India charged with masterminding US murder plot

US authorities have charged a former Indian intelligence officer with allegedly masterminding a murder-for-hire plot against a prominent Sikh separatist in New York City last year.

1 min

Retail sales growth slowed in September despite boost from technology spending

Sales growth in shops in Great Britain slowed last month as an increase in purchases of technology was tempered by the largest monthly fall in spending at supermarkets this year.

2 mins

UK care home chain sold to US investment company

One of Britain's largest care home chains, Care UK, has been sold to a US property investment company, the Guardian can reveal, in a deal that comes as private providers lobby government for a greater role in the NHS.

1 min

Flatten or refashion Can new purpose be found for empty shopping centres?

In Bolton's town centre, the gap-toothed brutalist facade of Crompton Place shopping centre faces off against its majestic Victorian town hall.

5 mins

Price shock Are you feeling better off now? Why US voters should, but may not, say yes

Are you feeling better off now? Why US Voters should, but may not, say yes

4 mins

Property Homeowners face huge bills when leases expire

Those unaware of how the system works can be left stumping up thousands despite paying off a mortgage. Diane Taylor reports

5 mins

Teachers' pensions 'I'm in despair as my debts mount'

Delays to pension pot valuations are 'causing huge distress' and costing money for divorcing couples. Rupert Jones reports

4 mins

Money hacks How to get your finances ready for a new baby

Raising a child from birth to the age of 18 costs, on average, £166,000 for a couple, and £220,000 for a lone parent in 2023, according to Child Poverty Action Group's annual cost of a child report. Affordability is regularly cited by people who would like to have children as a key reason for holding off doing so.

4 mins

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