China criticises British minister’s visit to Taiwan for trade talks

Beijing ‘resolutely opposes’ official exchanges between Taipei and UK government, says foreign ministry

UK politics live – latest news updates

China has criticised the British government for sending the trade minister Greg Hands to Taiwan and said the UK must cease “sending the wrong signals” to pro-independence forces on the self-ruled island that Beijing regards as its territory.

Hands began a two-day visit to Taipei on Monday, during which he is scheduled to meet the democracy’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, and co-host the 25th annual UK-Taiwan trade talks.

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Row brews in Iran over use of its drones in Ukraine war by Russia

Conservative cleric and a newspaper editor openly critical of government’s stance on weapons it supplied to Moscow

An internal rift over the supply of deadly drones to Russia for use in Ukraine has opened up in Iran, with a prominent conservative cleric and newspaper editor saying Russia is the clear aggressor in the war and the supply should stop.

A former Iranian ambassador to Moscow has also hinted the foreign ministry may have been kept in the dark both by the Kremlin and the Iranian military.

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Six out of 10 people in UK oppose Qatar hosting World Cup over anti-gay laws

Poll finds only 43% of people think England and Wales should take part, while 39% think they should not

A large majority of people in Britain think the World Cup should not be held in Qatar because of its position on LGBTQ+ rights.

Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, attracting punishments of up to seven years in prison. Despite this and other serious human rights concerns, Fifa members voted in 2010 to award the 2022 tournament to the Gulf state.

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‘Blood moon’ total lunar eclipse to arrive on Tuesday

Total eclipse to be visible in North America, Asia and the Pacific, but Africa, Middle East and Europe will have to wait until 2025

The moon is set to pull off a disappearing act on Tuesday, and those who miss it will have to wait three years for another chance to see something like it again.

A total lunar eclipse will be visible throughout North America before dawn on Tuesday, giving those further west the best view. In Asia, Australia and the rest of the Pacific, it will be visible after sunset.

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Russia-Ukraine war live news: Zelenskiy warns of ‘mass attacks’ on power grid; Kyiv mayor raises prospect of evacuations

Ukraine president claims Russia will use Iranian missiles for attacks; Vitali Klitschko urges Kyiv residents to consider leaving city in event of total blackout

The Kyiv Independent is reporting that “farmers’ warehouses, a cultural site, and private houses” were damaged in Zaporizhzhia region by Russian strikes, and according to local governor Pavlo Kyrylenko Russian forces have killed one civilian in Bakhmut and wounded five civilians elsewhere in the Donetsk region.

The chiefly unrecognised authorities in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in the occupied east of Ukraine have issued their daily operational briefing. They claim that overnight one civilian has been killed and three injured after Ukrainian forces shelled eight settlements that the DPR occupies. In addition, they claim that 31 housing and five civil infrastructure facilities were damaged. The claims have not been independently verified. The DPR is one of the regions that Russia claims to have annexed.

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Twitter bans comedian Kathy Griffin for impersonating Elon Musk

Users adopt Musk’s name after he announces suspension of accounts pretending to be someone else

Elon Musk has banned a US comedian’s Twitter account after taking on users who impersonate him on the platform.

Twitter’s new owner announced an immediate ban on accounts pretending to be someone else without flagging them as parodies. The move resulted in the removal of an “Elon Musk” account held by the comedian Kathy Griffin, who had changed her account name to match that of the Tesla chief executive.

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World is on ‘highway to climate hell’, UN chief warns at Cop27 summit

António Guterres tells leaders ‘global climate fight will be won or lost in this crucial decade – on our watch’

Humanity is on a “highway to climate hell”, the UN secretary general has warned, saying the fight for a liveable planet will be won or lost in this decade.

António Guterres told world leaders at the opening of the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt on Monday: “We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing … And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible.

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Dogs given to South Korea by Kim Jong-un at centre of political row

Former president Moon Jae-in says he will give up gift of Pungsan dogs if no support from Yoon Suk-yeol

South Korea’s former president Moon Jae-in has said he plans to give up a pair of dogs sent by the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, as a gift after their 2018 summit, citing a lack of support from his successor.

Moon has raised the white Pungsan dogs, named Gomi and Songgang, since their arrival and took them to his personal residence after his term ended in May.

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Cop27 wifi in Egypt blocks human rights and key news websites

Attendees say they are unable to visit Human Rights Watch and other sites needed during climate talks

Attendees at the Cop27 climate meeting have found that the conference internet connection blocks access to the global rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) as well as other key news websites needed for information during the talks.

HRW is due to lead a panel discussion at Cop27 along with Amnesty International, whose website is accessible on the conference wifi. The list of blocked sites also includes the blogging platform Medium, Egypt’s lone independent news outlet, Mada Masr, and the Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera.

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Karl Rove on the midterms: ‘Trump looms over this. No ifs or buts’

The veteran political strategist on why he believes his Republican party will benefit from dissatisfaction with the status quo

On the eve of a crucial midterms election that Joe Biden has warned “will preserve democracy or put us at risk”, veteran top Republican strategist Karl Rove says his party will benefit from dissatisfaction with the status quo, despite the specter of a Trump 2024 run and the end of federal abortion rights.

Rove, widely as a villain by the left for his orchestration of George W Bush’s victory over Al Gore in 2000, and for his senior role in Bush’s two terms as president, says American voters are being propelled by fears over inflation, the economy, crime in some areas, and feelings about the overall direction the country.

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Weather tracker: unseasonably warm October across Europe breaks records

Above-average temperatures across northern hemisphere come amid an extremely warm year for Britain

The UK and much of Europe experienced well above normal temperatures during the second month of the meteorological autumn, in what was a very warm month for the northern hemisphere as a whole.

Persistent low pressure in the Atlantic and higher pressure across central and southern Europe helped feed mild air from the south/south-west for prolonged periods in October.

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‘We worked alongside our worries’: Myanmar resumes hot-air balloon festival

Rival teams begin launching aerial artistic creations that explode with fireworks once (hopefully) in the sky

Thousands of people have gathered in the hills of central Myanmar for the annual Tazaungdaing light festival marking the end of the rainy season with a fiery display of exploding hot-air balloons.

The celebration in the former British hill station of Pyin Oo Lwin has not been held for two years because of the Covid pandemic and unrest after a military coup.

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Biden fights to stop midterms defeat as Republicans poised for sweeping gains

Momentum appears to be with Republicans capitalising on economic frustration as experts say party peaking at right time

Joe Biden is fighting a rearguard action to stave off defeat in Tuesday’s midterm elections as Republicans look poised to make sweeping gains in the US Congress, setting up two years of political trench warfare.

The president, along with former president Barack Obama, has been criss-crossing America in a last-ditch bid to persuade voters that a Democratic victory is critical not only to Biden’s legislative agenda but the preservation of American democracy.

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The Ukraine war is deepening Russia’s ties with North Korea as well as Iran

Moscow’s growing need for armaments from Pyongyang is likely to lead to greater alignment of diplomatic and military interests

Russian arms procurement from Iran and North Korea heralds an increasing convergence of military and diplomatic interests between Moscow and two countries regarded as international pariahs.

Amid renewed accusations from Washington that Russia is attempting to procure large amounts of artillery ammunition from Pyongyang, on top of the missiles and kamikaze and other drones it has already bought from Iran, Moscow’s arms procurement blitz has flagged up the mounting logistical problems in Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.

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‘Era-defining scandal’: Ireland revisits ‘Gubu’ murders 40 years on

Scandal over Malcolm MacArthur killings destabilised a government and spawned an acronym

No single adjective could do justice to the events that rocked Ireland in July and August 1982, so the then taoiseach, Charles Haughey, used four: “Grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented”. An acronym was soon born: Gubu.

That summer, Malcolm MacArthur, a socialite with a yen for bow ties and cravats, had bludgeoned a young woman to death, killed a farmer with his own shotgun and attempted to rob a retired US diplomat, sparking a huge manhunt.

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Orthodox church of Ukraine allows worshippers to celebrate Christmas on 25 December

Move away from traditional date of 7 January directed against pro-Putin head of Russian Orthodox church

For centuries Ukrainians have celebrated Christmas on 7 January, the date on which Jesus was born, according to the Julian calendar.

But following Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February, the Orthodox church of Ukraine is allowing its congregations for the first time to celebrate Christmas on 25 December, in a move away from Russia and towards the west.

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One in four Europeans say their financial position is ‘precarious’

Study by anti-poverty NGO shows more than half feel at financial risk and 80% have already made hard spending choices

One in four Europeans describe their financial position as “precarious”, more than half see a serious risk it will become so over the coming months, and 80% have already been forced into hard spending choices, according to a survey.

As the cost of living crisis, driven by high energy prices, rampant inflation and Russia’s war on Ukraine, tightens its grip, the six-country survey for the French anti-poverty NGO Secours Populaire painted an alarming picture of “a continent on the brink”.

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Occupied Kherson loses power, as Kyiv mayor urges residents to prepare for total blackouts

The southern occupied city and surrounding settlements lost power over the weekend, the first time the region has seen such an energy cut

The occupied city of Kherson has lost power for the first time since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, as Kyiv’s mayor told residents to consider leaving the capital in the event of a complete blackout.

In a statement on Telegram, the Russian-controlled Kherson administration said electricity and water supplies were down after a “terrorist attack” damaged three power lines on the Berislav-Kakhovka highway in an occupied part of the region.

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Italy stops dozens of asylum seekers on NGO ship from coming ashore

Children and the sick were allowed off when boat run by German organisation SOS Humanity docked in Sicily

In the first test of its immigration policy, Italy’s new far-right government has prevented 35 asylum seekers from disembarking from their boat, claiming they did not qualify for asylum.

On Saturday night, Rome allowed the ship Humanity 1, run by the German search-and-rescue organisation SOS Humanity and carrying 179 people, to enter the port of Catania, in Sicily, and begin disembarking only children and sick or “vulnerable” people.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Kyiv mayor tells residents to prepare for the worst – as it happened

Residents warned they must prepare for having no electricity, water or heating as temperatures drop below freezing

Russia appointed a new acting commander of the Central Military District on 3 November, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said.

Major General Alexander Linkov replaces Colonel General Alexander Lapin who was purportedly removed from office at the end of October 2022.

If confirmed, this follows a series of dismissals of senior Russian military commanders since the onset of the invasion in February 2022. The Commanders of the Eastern, Southern, and Western Military Districts were replaced earlier this year.

Lapin has been widely criticised for poor performance on the battlefield in Ukraine by both Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin.

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