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Politics
Policy, power, and the news of the day.
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UK hospitality sector to offer up to 100,000 jobs to young people out of work
Restaurants and pubs such as Nando’s and Fuller’s will create placements for 18- to 24-year-olds under DWP-backed scheme Bars, clubs and restaurants will offer up to 100,000 jobs to young people not in employment, education or training (Neet) over the next three years in an effort to give them a first step on the ladder into work. The move comes before the publication of a report on Neets by the former health secretary Alan Milburn, who has warned that the number of young people not in work or education in the UK could rise to 1.25 million over the next five years unless ministers intervene. Continue reading...
Pennsylvania woman allegedly kills husband and son before attempting suicide at resort
Police arrested Metallica Rose Harrison, 27, after reports of a ‘distressed female’ at the Great Wolf Lodge resort A Pennsylvania woman allegedly killed her husband and her three-year-old son at a resort in the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania this week before attempting suicide, according to local officials. Pocono Township police responded to reports of a “distressed female” at the Great Wolf Lodge resort, with the woman, identified as 27-year old Metallica Rose Harrison of Towanda, Pennsylvania, by police. Continue reading...
Ex-fiance of Nancy Mace and two others charged with sex crimes she detailed in House speech
Republican representative described the assault in a nearly hourlong speech in February 2025 that named the men Nancy Mace’s former fiance and two of his business associates were charged with sex crimes and voyeurism on Wednesday over an episode the South Carolina representative described in detail during a speech last year on the House floor, about how crimes against women are not investigated thoroughly. John Douglas Osborne committed sex acts on a 23-year-old incapacitated and intoxicated woman while Mace’s ex-fiance Patrick Bryant and Eric Bernard Bowman watched, according to sworn statements by agents from the state law enforcement division, which brought the charges. Continue reading...
Australian politics live: Victoria Labor promises free abortion care if re-elected; Albanese criticises Hanson’s ‘monoculture’
Follow the day’s news live. Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The United States will not “have enough skin in the game” to send troops to defend Australia in the event of an attack from China, a leading international security expert has warned. Sam Roggeveen , director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, also said the anti-immigration policies being touted by major parties, as well as One Nation, would weaken Australia’s position on the global stage. We should recommit to multicultural immigration, not because diversity is strength ... but because scale is strength . America won’t risk its own troops in a fight against a nuclear-armed opponent because its vital interests won’t be at stake . To put it bluntly, America won’t have enough skin in the game. Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s leader, and soon its economy will surpass ours . If we get this relationship right, Indonesia offers a natural barrier against threats from third countries. Continue reading...
Reform UK councillors and candidates filmed making racist and extreme comments
Party faces fresh crisis as three councillors quit after ITV undercover filming exposed violence, misogyny and racist views Reform UK has been rocked by a fresh crisis after councillors and election candidates for the party were caught on film making graphic threats of extreme violence and expressing racist and misogynistic views. Three councillors have already stood down from the party, which said it was conducting an investigation over the first revelations from an ITV undercover investigation that aired on Wednesday. Continue reading...
Volodymyr Zelenskyy feels ‘betrayed’ by Donald Trump over Starlink access
Ukrainian president accused US president of picking the other side over four years of war Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he feels personally betrayed by Donald Trump after it emerged that Ukraine’s military has had its access to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite squeezed raising doubts about long-term US support for Kyiv. The Ukrainian president, on a visit to London, accused Trump of picking the other side after over four years of war, risking a breakdown in relations already strained by the US agreeing to buy diesel from Moscow. Continue reading...
Israel blocks construction of key Gaza base created by Trump peace board
Source tells Guardian Israel has not permitted US-led project to house 150 international troops to move forward Israel is refusing to allow a key military outpost project for Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to proceed in Gaza, the Guardian has learned. In early August, the Board of Peace, the international organization authorized in 2025 by the UN and chaired by the US president, issued its first construction contract for Gaza : Louisiana-based Arkel International would construct a military outpost for 150 international troops that would be the vanguard of an international stabilization force. Continue reading...
OpenAI’s London staff receive average of £2.3m per person annually
Accounts for the Westminster-based company behind ChatGPT show that 110 staff shared £87m in salaries and £168m in shares last year OpenAI’s London staff each received £2,318,181 on average last year, as the ChatGPT-maker poured Premier League football salaries into its bid to dominate the global AI race. Accounts for OpenAI UK Ltd, which is based in Westminster but is opening a new HQ in London’s King’s Cross area, showed that 110 staff shared £87m in salaries and £168m in shares in the company, which is aiming to list on the stock market at a valuation of about $1tn. Continue reading...
Trump’s new press secretary says she passed bar exam ‘when I moved to China’, raising questions of US authority
Katie Zacharia maintains she ‘practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials’ Donald Trump ’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, has repeatedly described herself as a lawyer. But when asked after her inaugural press briefing on Tuesday to name the state where she passed the bar exam, she replied curiously: “when I moved to China”. No public record shows she has ever been licensed to practice law in the US states where she resided, and her answer to reporters’ questions on Tuesday only deepened scrutiny. Continue reading...
In Ukraine, civilian casualties were already rising. Restrictions on Starlink will only worsen the death toll
Throttling of mobile internet system will affect Kyiv’s air defences more than its strikes on oil refineries. Now Zelenskyy must be hoping that US intel holds In Ukraine the situation was already jittery enough. Donald Trump has been inventing ceasefires and buying Russian diesel to shore up his flagging popularity, while a sinister new wave of faster, jet-powered drones are breaking through Kyiv’s stretched air defences. Casualties are rising as the weather turns. Overnight, Russia bombed three power plants that supply Kyiv, aiming to cut off heating and electricity to the city. According to the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for a second night in a row no warning came from Ukraine’s western allies of the incoming ballistic missiles – and so no air raid alert was issued. Continue reading...
SpaceX rocket launch causes stunning ‘jellyfish cloud’ visible off US east coast
Expanding plume of fuel exhaust crystalized in the sky and reflected sunlight off frozen particles after Florida launch A SpaceX rocket provided a stunning pre-dawn display over Florida as a massive, luminescent “jellyfish cloud” spread for miles, caused by an expanding plume of fuel exhaust crystalizing in the sky and reflecting sunlight off the frozen particles. The phenomenon occurred shortly after Tuesday’s 6.33am ET launch of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying cargo to the International Space Station. Continue reading...
Southern California beach closes after sighting of great white shark ‘exhibiting aggressive behavior’
Two-mile stretch of Huntington Beach closed after sighting at location popular with surfers and swimmers A popular southern California beach was closed after a great white shark was reportedly spotted “exhibiting aggressive behavior” on Tuesday afternoon. The Huntington Beach fire department said there was a “credible report” of a 10-12ft great white shark circling near a lifeguard tower, which is considered aggressive behavior according to the city’s marine safety division’s “shark response protocols”. Continue reading...
India’s cockroach protesters defy Modi’s crackdown – The Latest
A fresh wave of protests by India’s youth-led Cockroach movement has been met with a brutal crackdown by Narendra Modi’s government and the closure of a historic protest site in Delhi. Two of the movement’s leaders have been imprisoned for five days for violating suppression measures. The protests, which began over frustration about education and unemployment, are now focused on voting rights. Modi’s government denies claims it is seeking to disenfranchise millions of voters. But its treatment of protesters has been criticised by the UN and Amnesty International and raised concerns that India is sliding further into autocracy. Lucy Hough speaks to South Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen – watch on YouTube Continue reading...
The Guardian view on Trump’s deal with Putin: grim and grubby, but not gamechanging | Editorial
President Zelenskyy’s allies must show the Russian president that American perfidy won’t alter the course of a war the Kremlin is losing When Donald Trump pledged to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of re-entering the White House last year, no one with any depth of insight into the conflict believed him. But Mr Trump took his own words seriously enough to feel the lack of a ceasefire as an affront to his self-image as a master dealmaker. After a period when it seemed that Kyiv’s European allies had steered the US president away from pro‑Kremlin partisanship, he has reverted to the grotesque view that Ukrainian capitulation is a necessary precondition for peace. These are the perilous circumstances in which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Andy Burnham on Wednesday in Downing Street. In recent days, the US president has called for a change of government in Ukraine. He claimed that a partial ceasefire had been agreed, while Russia escalated its bombardments. According to Mr Zelenskyy, the latest missile strikes have come without the intelligence warnings from the US that have, in the past, facilitated self-defence. There have been reports of Ukrainian soldiers losing access to the Starlink satellite network, controlled by Elon Musk, the US tech oligarch. This raises suspicion of coordinated pressure to tip the scales in Russia’s favour after many months when Mr Putin’s forces have failed to deliver significant advances and his country’s economy has been suffering from the effect of Ukrainian missile and drone counterstrikes. Continue reading...
Judge blocks US sanctions on rights groups helping ICC Gaza war crimes inquiry
Blow for Trump administration as Dawn and Taag hail ‘important step in unraveling the ICC sanctions regime’ A US federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from placing sanctions on two US-based human rights groups for working to help the international criminal court’s (ICC) investigations into war crimes in Gaza. In a 30-page order issued on Tuesday, Jesse M Furman, a judge at the US district court for the southern district of New York, granted a preliminary injunction to the two groups, Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) and Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide (Taag). Continue reading...
Student protests in Albania turn violent as demonstrators clash with police
Government building and two banks set on fire as tens of thousands take to streets over education costs and corruption Tens of thousands of students have taken to the streets of Tirana, the Albanian capital, setting alight a government building and two banks and hurling stones at police during a protest over rising education costs and corruption. Police responded with water cannons and teargas to disperse protesters who started a fire at the ministry of education building, overturned bins and smashed the fronts of local businesses. A branch of Raiffeisen Bank near the education ministry also caught fire. Continue reading...
The Archers cast ‘angry’ at BBC decision to scrap new studio, says actor
Ben Norris says cost-cutting measure that means show will be recorded outside Birmingham risks ‘extraordinary burden’ for crew A cast member of The Archers has said its actors have been angered by the BBC’s decision to axe the show’s new studio, in a move that could lead to it being recorded away from its home in Birmingham. Ben Norris, who plays Ben Archer in the world’s longest-running soap opera, said the decision risked having a real impact on the quality of the show and placing an “extraordinary burden” on its crew. Continue reading...
Manchester City staff invited on government trade trip to India
Exclusive: Greater Manchester mayor Bev Craig invited City representative on trade trip organised by business secretary A club representative from Manchester City was invited on a government-backed trade delegation to India this week, despite the club being found guilty of 114 breaches of Premier League rules. Andy Burnham’s successor as Manchester mayor Bev Craig took a representative from the club to Delhi and Mumbai on a trip organised by business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, where she and other northern mayors have been promoting British trade and tourism. Continue reading...
MLS’s political speech policy is untenable – just ask Austin FC fans
The protests around an anti-ICE T-shirt show that politics can never be separated from sports, especially now On 26 September, Daniela Silva was expelled from Austin FC’s match with San Diego FC for wearing a T-shirt reading “Abolish ICE”. She says she was banned from Q2 Stadium for a year (Austin FC said that the ban was issued by the Austin Police Department, not the club, and that they offered to rescind it but that Silva declined). This happened, really, truly, and you cannot make this up, during Austin FC’s Hispanic Heritage Night. It also happened six days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents shot a Venezuelan delivery driver , 28-year-old Wilber Garcés Pérez, in the torso in Austin, sparking protests in the city. Leander Schaerlaeckens is the author of The Long Game: US Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which is out now . He teaches at Marist University. Continue reading...
New UK sanctions powers will enable action against supporters of illegal Israeli settlements
Global human rights commitments adopted by government extends reach to enablers of unlawful activity The UK is expanding its sanctions powers to freeze assets and target entities enabling illegal Israeli settlements, obstructing humanitarian aid or unlawfully holding prisoners. The statutory instrument introducing the Global Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law sanctions adds three new grounds to the 2020 regime – serious violations of international humanitarian law, obstruction of humanitarian assistance and serious violations of the right to liberty and security of person. Continue reading...
Plan unveiled to increase share of land farmed organically in England to 10%
Government says ambition for 2036 will be good for food and climate resilience, but concerns remain over funding The government has set an ambition to increase the share of English land farmed organically to 10% by 2036, but concerns remain over how the transition will be funded. Currently, just 3.4% of England’s agricultural land is farmed organically, one of the smallest shares in Europe. France, for example, farms 10.4% of its land organically, and aims to increase this to 18% by 2027. Continue reading...
The UK energy secretary is flirting with a bad idea for bills – the ‘rising block tariff’
There are many reasons to ignore this affordability ‘solution’, not least it being complex and fiddly. Just keep things simple “My mark of failure or success is whether I can get bills down or not. That’s the only thing I’m in this job to do.” So said Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, recently , bracing for the hike in energy bills that looks inevitable in January. Industry projections suggest £400-ish on an annual basis is on the way, with “stubbornly high” levels for the rest of decade even if wholesale gas prices cool down. So, yes, one can understand why “affordability” is Fahnbulleh’s “top priority”. And, as this newspaper reported last week , there is likely to be an intervention in that direction in chancellor John Healey’s budget this month: £1bn of extra support for poorer households this winter. Continue reading...
Cornell president acknowledges he knew about fraternity sexual assault but didn’t follow up
Michael Kotlikoff addressed his administration’s handling of the 2024 allegations as the faces calls for his resignation Michael Kotlikoff, the president of Cornell University, spoke to the New York Times about sexual assault allegations at the school, acknowledging for the first time that he knew a student had reported being sexually assaulted in November 2024, but did not follow up with the Jane Doe involved in the months after learning about the alleged assault. He also revealed that he did not know she had dropped out of Cornell until she filed a lawsuit last month. Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...
Sir Trevor Phillips encouraged CBS News colleagues to tell critics to ‘fuck off’
Phillips sought to buck up his fellow London bureau colleagues during a contentious staff meeting on Tuesday The veteran British broadcaster Sir Trevor Phillips had some strong words of advice for his CBS News colleagues when facing off against critics who question the editorial integrity of the network: “Why don’t you just fuck off and let us do our jobs?” Phillips made his blunt suggestion during a contentious meeting of the network’s London bureau on Tuesday, during which the foreign editor, Shayndi Raice, went on a lengthy tirade criticizing unnamed staffers for suggesting that editorial oversight amounted to “interference” and informing colleagues that disobeying editors would be insubordination and “legal grounds for firing”. Continue reading...