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Politics
Policy, power, and the news of the day.
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Troy Aikman and Joe Buck: what next for the NFL’s $165m TV power couple as they head for a split?
The duo have carved out lucrative and successful careers as TV audiences elsewhere are falling. It seems they won’t be together for much longer Troy Aikman knew when it was time to go. His aching body made the decision for him when he ended his NFL career in 2001. A quarter of a century later, with one of the top quarterbacks of the 1990s established as half of the pre-eminent broadcasting duo in American sports, his potential exit from the booth is not so clearcut. Aikman clearly feels his voice remains in fine working order, but his bosses at ESPN may not agree. The color commentator’s Monday Night Football play-by-play partner, Joe Buck, is reported to have agreed a new deal with the network worth $108m over six seasons (his previous deal was for five years at $15m a season), yet Aikman has claimed ESPN does not want to renew his contract. Continue reading...
Climate campaigners condemn ‘maddening’ decision to approve Jackdaw gasfield
Critics say move will jeopardise climate targets, fail to cut cost of living and distract from need to decarbonise energy UK politics live – latest updates Climate campaigners and green experts have condemned the government’s decision to allow the drilling of the Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea. They said approval for the site would jeopardise the UK’s climate targets , fail to reduce the cost of living , and distract from the need to decarbonise the UK’s energy sector. Continue reading...
Soft-spoken David Pocock has big ambitions – but first he wants politicians to ‘double down’ on kindness
Independent senator’s goals ‘much bigger’ than prime ministership, he reveals in first speech to national press club Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast He’s six foot tall and full of muscle, but David Pocock’s real strength is often sounding like the most sensible, commonsense voice in the room. At his first speech to the national press club on Wednesday, he said he wasn’t launching a bid for prime minister – no matter how much some people might like the softly spoken senator to have more say in federal politics. A 25% tax on gas exports, which he said could fund anything from boosting welfare to health reforms and aged care. A 5% levy on datacentres to capture more benefits from the AI boom. Transparency reforms to shine a light on lobbyists, secret meetings with politicians and vested interests. Continue reading...
US envoy Witkoff lands in Russia for talks with Vladimir Putin about Ukraine – Europe live
The meeting comes after the US official held ‘constructive’ talks with Zelenskyy in Norway US special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Saint Petersburg early morning for talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin about Ukraine, a day after holding discussions with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leaders of Norway and Finland. Witkoff was met at Pulkovo Airport by the Kremlin’s advisor for international economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev. Continue reading...
Labour accused of ‘climate vandalism’ by Green leader Polanski after Jackdaw gasfield approved – UK politics live
The Jackdaw field will start supplying gas to homes and businesses from the end of the month, the government said Good morning. After months of delay, the government has taken a decision on one of the most difficult climate crisis/energy supply challenges on the table. It has approved the Jackdaw gasfield, east of Aberdeen. Peter Walker and Kiran Stacey have the story here. Here is the government’s news release . And if you want to all the technical documents relating to the decision, you will find them here. I welcome the energy secretary’s decision, which will protect hundreds of jobs and help keep millions of homes warm this winter. At a time when people are really struggling, it’s right that we look in a responsible way at maximising the existing energy reserves we have in Britain that could help. We’re committed to moving towards renewable energy and reaching net zero by 2050. But even on our ambitious climate path, we’ll still require oil and gas as part of our energy needs for decades to come. That’s why we’re taking a pragmatic approach to the North Sea. We’re also establishing a new Energy Wealth Fund to invest in renewable energy, support the green transition and help reduce energy bills over the long-term. This is climate vandalism. Today’s decision by Labour is a betrayal of all of our futures, Labour has abandoned all credibility in the fight against climate change. Continue reading...
UK government borrowing rises to £24.5bn as John Healey prepares for budget
Government paid £10.9bn in debt interest, the highest September figure since records began Business live – latest updates The Treasury ran a higher than expected budget deficit of £24.5bn last month as rising inflation pushed up the interest paid on government debt, increasing pressure on John Healey before his first budget next Wednesday. Official figures show the government paid £10.9bn in debt interest: the highest September figure since records began, and only the eighth time the monthly number has been above £10bn. Continue reading...
Helen Haines has lost both legs after Monday’s alleged attack but ‘her heart and mind in good shape’, husband says
Haines remains in stable condition. Surgeons tried to save her right leg, but both have now been amputated due to her injuries Independent MP Helen Haines has lost both legs but remains in a stable condition, two days after an alleged targeted attack near her electorate office in north-east Victoria. Haines, the federal MP for Indi, had been in a critical but stable condition after the incident in Wangaratta on Monday afternoon. Surgeons were trying to save her right leg on Tuesday, but both had to be amputated due to the seriousness of her injuries. Continue reading...
Three ideas for how to deal with Thames Water
The Guardian proposes emergency legislation, public control via the courts or stripping the utility company of its licence Andy Burnham has told officials to rip up their plans for how to fix Thames Water and present him with more radical options for what to do with the stricken company. Here are some ideas the prime minister is being urged to consider. Emergency legislation Continue reading...
Jess Phillips hopes supreme court ‘sees sense’ and overturns domestic abuse ruling
Court of appeal decision prevents woman from suing police and CPS for disclosing her address to violent ex-partner The Labour MP Jess Phillips has said she hopes the UK’s highest court “sees sense” and overturns a ruling preventing a domestic abuse survivor from suing Sussex police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for disclosing her address to her violent ex-partner. Phillips said that if the supreme court upheld the court of appeal’s decision when it hears the case on Wednesday and Thursday, it would prevent police from being held accountable for failures in cases of violence against women and girls. Continue reading...
UK approves Jackdaw gasfield in North Sea
Decision was widely expected after lobbying by Shell but will dismay environmental campaigners The UK government has approved the controversial Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea, a widely expected move that will nonetheless dismay environmental campaigners and a number of Labour MPs. While Labour’s 2024 election manifesto committed to a ban on new drilling licences in the North Sea, the companies behind Jackdaw and the Rosebank oilfield project, which is being decided on separately, have sought environmental approval for existing licences. Continue reading...
Katie Zacharia and Trump’s women problem – podcast
In this episode of Guardian Australia’s US politics podcast, co-hosts Jonathan Yerushalmy and Reged Ahmad look at how Katie Zacharia broke the record for shortest tenure as White House press secretary. They then examine the pattern of how women in the Trump administration are treated when they’re perceived to have made mistakes – versus how men seem to survive their missteps. They also look at how the US might be changing course on Russia’s war on Ukraine. Are relations between Donald Trump and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at their lowest point ever? And what happens if the US decides to take Vladimir Putin’s side in the war? Read more : Enter the Zachbot: Trump’s new press secretary malfunctions on podium debut All the president’s women: a familiar downward trajectory on Trump’s team Continue reading...
AFP warns Australia of ‘tsunami of youth crime’ and radicalisation accelerated by AI
Children as young as 12 among dozens subject to federal police operations since 2020, parliamentary inquiry hears Australia is facing a “tsunami” of youth crime as artificial intelligence accelerates the pace and scale of radicalisation, a parliamentary inquiry has heard. The Australian federal police acting deputy commissioner Sandra Booth told the hearing on Wednesday that, while radicalisation had traditionally taken years or months, that process could now happen within days. Continue reading...
‘A difficult line’: meet the editors tackling Wikipedia’s arms trade pages
Volunteers and new recruits come together for ‘wikithon’ to put more detail about industry into public domain “Anyone can edit Wikipedia,” the adage goes. But, it turns out, a relatively small number actually do. What is worthy of a digital page in the world’s largest and most-read encyclopedia is decided by roughly 270,000 active volunteers, enthusiasts who populate the online resource with information on anything from 19th-century medicine to TikTok trends. Inevitably, some subjects are sidelined – the global south, notable women – but a new batch of Wikipedian recruits are waging war on one neglected topic: the arms industry. Last week, in a classroom in central London, two dozen volunteers huddled around laptops and free servings of vegan Ethiopian food for what is known as a “wikithon”, an event of collective and in-person Wikipedia editing. Some were veteran editors in their 70s, others young students who had never registered an account before. But their targets include subjects such as Palantir, Project Maven and Nitro-Chem. Continue reading...
Streeting delays defence jobs plan for young people after union pushback
UK defence secretary had been due to unveil proposals on Thursday until concerns were raised at 11th hour Wes Streeting has been forced to delay the publication of a plan to get more young people into defence industry jobs after pushback from trade unions, the Guardian understands. The defence secretary had been due to announce the proposals on Thursday, but some unions in the sector are understood to have reacted angrily to the plans, accusing the government of bypassing their members and minimising their roles in job creation. Continue reading...
From strife-torn France to the UK, rightwing populists win when they stir chaos while promising order | Rafael Behr
Marine Le Pen and Donald Trump are arsonists who play at being firefighters. Nigel Farage is finding that act harder to pull off in Andy Burnham’s Britain An election where one side represents chaos will nearly always be won by the party that promises order instead. Public fatigue after years of turbulent Tory rule accounted for Labour’s 2024 landslide victory more than any policy in Keir Starmer’s manifesto. Across the Channel, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), is currently on course to win next year’s presidential poll with a pledge of “restored authority and security” for a country that has spent years cycling between enervating stasis and explosive crisis. Le Pen has been boosted in recent days by scenes of city centres ablaze and shops being looted as student demonstrations mutated into riots. Street confrontation is a more standard feature of the political repertoire in France than in most settled democracies, but the destruction was disturbing by any measure. Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Mystery of Roman sarcophagus unearthed at Westminster Abbey solved at last, expert says
Archaeologist says skeleton inside coffin inscribed to Valerius Amandinus is likely to be remains of 11th-century abbot It has all the ingredients of a chilling mystery: the skeleton of an unknown man discovered within a Roman sarcophagus unearthed in the grounds of Westminster Abbey. Now an expert has said he has solved the longstanding “who-is-it”, suggesting the remains belonged to a medieval abbot. Continue reading...
Troubled waters: life during wartime for Iranians on the strait of Hormuz
Despite US-Israeli airstrikes and Tehran’s attacks on shipping, the waterway still has to provide a lifeline for those that live and work there Capt Farouq turns the wheel as he watches the ferry terminal of Bandar Abbas grow smaller, its bright lights flickering in the distance. In front of him, the navigation radar beeps periodically, its green and pink lights glowing in the darkness. The ferry, today at about half capacity with roughly 100 passengers, turns and heads into the darkness of the strait of Hormuz. Capt Farouq pulls into the deeper waters Continue reading...
UK watchdogs urged to tackle suicide social media content after death of girl, 14
Adriana Retyte took her own life after viewing ‘high-risk’ material on the video-sharing platform TikTok A 14-year-old schoolgirl’s death after TikTok served her suicide content has prompted renewed calls for UK watchdogs to crack down on “toxic” social media feeds. Adriana Retyte, a pupil at Langley school in Norfolk, took her own life after she viewed videos and images related to suicide on the video-sharing platform, according to a coroner who last week found her access to the material on TikTok “may have played a significant part in her decision to take her life”. Continue reading...
Australia’s largest datacentre operator NextDCs shares dive as Melbourne expansion delayed
NextDC has told investors that its plans to double the size of its west Melbourne datacentre has hit an obstacle in community objections to 22m high power poles Australia’s largest datacentre operator has been forced to delay the controversial expansion of its M3 site in Melbourne’s west amid a pause in construction of new 22m power poles following community protest. On Wednesday, NextDC told the Australian Stock Exchange that delays to electricity provider Jemena’s upgrade of the power poles – essential to delivering the increased electricity required by the expanded West Footscray site – would mean the expansion would be pushed back to the 2027/2028 financial year. Continue reading...
Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly played Taylor Swift’s No Body, No Crime during body disposal, court told
Friend of accused double murderer tells supreme court that van had lemony smell and blue tarp in back before Bunnings stop Beau Lamarre-Condon played Taylor Swift’s song No Body, No Crime while attempting to dispose of two corpses, a court has heard. The NSW supreme court has been told he was driving to Bungonia with a friend when the song was played in the van. Continue reading...
A student protest movement has gripped Serbia for two years. This weekend it will try to take power
Unorthodox campaign is challenging the ruling party’s 12-year reign with a bold democratic experiment On a cool autumn evening, a team of Serbian student volunteers went canvassing in the housing estates of Krnjača, a Belgrade suburb. They were equipped with lanyards emblazoned with the word “victory”, a stock list of questions and a mobile app that mapped visited homes and the level of support in each. The volunteers were part of a mass student movement, Student List, that has rocked Serbia with two years of constant protests. On Sunday, the group will represent the most serious challenge Aleksandar Vučić has faced in his 12 increasingly authoritarian years in power, by putting forward their own candidates in parliamentary elections. Continue reading...
Fifth foreign firm pulls out of controversial Israeli cable car project to East Jerusalem
Rights groups say the planned 1.4km route, which ends at compound run by far-right settler group Elad, will displace Palestinians and reshape the cultural landscape A fifth foreign company has pulled out of a plan to build a cable car from West to East Jerusalem that threatens to involve the seizure of land and property rights from dozens of Palestinian families along its route, but local authorities insist the scheme is proceeding as planned. The project appeared to have stalled for four years until late September, just weeks before Israel’s 27 October elections , when the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA) issued a notice of intent to award a contract without a public tender to ROPES, a cable car engineering consultancy based in South Tyrol, Italy. Continue reading...
Firefighters voice growing concerns over water supplies to tackle UK wildfires
During a summer fire that destroyed homes in Stourbridge, low pressure meant filling a water carrier took 40 minutes Concerns have been raised about how drought affects the UK’s ability to cope with wildfires after MPs were told firefighters struggled for water supplies during this year’s record summer. The government has been urged to set out water companies’ statutory responsibilities during major fire incidents to improve the country’s preparedness for the years ahead. Continue reading...
Fast-fashion giant Shein outperforms several Australian retailers on ethics, report says
Ghanda and Windsor Smith are among lowest-rated in Baptist World Aid ethical fashion report based on metrics such as wages and sustainability Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Online fast-fashion giant Shein is outperforming many Australian high street retailers on ethical standards, according to an industry review. The 11th Baptist World Aid ethical fashion report, released on Tuesday , assessed the ethical practices of 138 Australian and international companies, representing 543 fashion brands. Continue reading...