Burnham hails approval for two huge windfarm projects as ‘power under British control’ – UK politics live

Announcement comes ahead of visit to Cop31 climate conference with PM also set to face MPs at PMQs

Here are some more comments on the report for the Casey commission released today looking at how social care is run in England. (See 9.56am.)

This is from Natasha Curry, deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust and one of the report’s authors.

Compared to the other countries we looked at, the governance of England’s social care system is confused and complex. Overlapping and unclear roles leave dangerous uncertainty around who is responsible for important decisions, contributing to the inertia around reform England has struggled with for decades. The serious consequences of this were laid bare during the Covid pandemic.

The system for governing adult social care in England has evolved haphazardly and with little clear planning. That has been exacerbated by successive governments ducking politically unpalatable decisions for decades. That has scattered responsibility for the sector across and outside government in a way that few would design from scratch.

This report makes for sober reading of how adult social care and those who rely on it have been systematically failed. The fragmentation we see today is what happens when there is a total absence of political leadership to ensure the sector is well-funded and provides equitable access to care.

[Burnham] struggled to dampen splits among cabinet ministers, which were first revealed by The i Paper, who used the meeting to express differing views on the future relationship with Brussels.

One source with knowledge of the cabinet discussion said there was a “clear divide between those who want to go further and those who don’t want to push the issue too far”.

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One Nation Victoria candidate apologises for slew of offensive comments about lesbians, Indians and Julia Gillard

Exclusive: Chris Moore, running for the party in Greenvale, made derogatory social media comments between 2010 and 2012

A One Nation candidate in Victoria has apologised for a series of offensive comments including repeated references to Australian-Indians as “curry munchers”, comparing a woman in burqa to a bag of rubbish, and sharing an image calling Julia Gillard a slut.

The party’s candidate for Greenvale on Melbourne’s north-western fringe, Chris Moore, also made derogatory comments about lesbians and refugees and once posted that he “doesn’t like the way the new homo cleaner at work looks at me”.

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NAZA documentary on Gaza killings becomes one of year’s most watched

The film, which details Israel’s surveillance of Palestinian civilians, has been seen by more than 1.5m people in less than two months

NAZA, the award-winning documentary that details Israel’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza, has been seen by more than 1.5 million people since being released in cinemas across the world last month.

The film, which is directed by the Oscar-winning Israeli film-makers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and produced by the Guardian, has reached a worldwide audience of 1,547,033 as of Friday 6 November, making it one of the most-watched documentary films with a theatrical release in 2026.

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Jonathan Ross ‘horrified’ by David Walliams and Russell Brand revelations

TV presenter says he was ‘genuinely unaware’ of pair’s conduct despite joking about Walliams going home with 15-year-old girl in 2004

The TV presenter Jonathan Ross has said he is “as horrified by the revelations about David Walliams and the crimes of Russell Brand as the rest of the nation”, adding that he was “genuinely unaware of their conduct” despite making a joke about a 15-year-old “going home” with Walliams at the British Comedy Awards in 2004.

Walliams, one of Britain’s best-known television personalities and top-selling children’s authors, has been accused by several women of using his power and celebrity status to prey on young women and teenagers for sex.

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Woman in Saudi Arabia sentenced to 100 lashes for giving birth outside marriage

Rights groups condemn reported punishment of Kenyan migrant worker as an ‘act of violence’

A Kenyan mother in Saudi Arabia has reportedly been sentenced to 100 lashes after giving birth outside marriage.

Under the Saudi sharia law system, sex outside marriage is a criminal offence. But it is women who are disproportionately targeted, say rights groups, which have condemned the punishment as an “act of violence”.

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US Treasury chief Scott Bessent is reportedly latest Trump official to move to military base

Bessent, driving force behind US push to cripple Iran’s economy, relocates over alleged threat to his life

The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has relocated from his home in the Washington area to a military base after an Iranian threat against his life, the New York Times has reported.

Bessent has spearheaded a US push to cripple Iran’s economy since the start of the Middle East war, vowing “economic asphyxiation” of the Islamic republic through a web of sanctions.

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Aldi cuts hundreds of UK head office roles as part of global cost trimming

Supermarket’s move labelled ‘shortsighted’ by worker who calls upper management ‘woefully out of touch with reality’

Aldi’s UK business is cutting hundreds of head office roles as part of a global effort to trim costs at the budget grocer.

The retailer is consulting with its technology team on the loss of up to 150 roles after 103 redundancies in its finance and administration team earlier this year and almost 20 more redundancies among buying directors.

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AI has made it ‘close to impossible’ to assess university coursework, regulator says

Office for Students says institutions in England should return to traditional exams and in-person presentations

Universities should go back to traditional exams and in-person presentations to grade students after lecturers complained that AI has made it “close to impossible” to assess coursework, according to an investigation by England’s higher education regulator.

The Office for Students (OfS) said the credibility of degrees from England’s universities was under threat from the prolific use of AI in essays, dissertations and “open book” exams, with students reporting that their peers boasted of using AI undetected by staff.

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Whitehall is too ‘tame, reactive and risk-averse’, says UK’s top civil servant

Antonia Romeo pledges to ‘rewire’ civil service by incentivising and rewarding top performers

Whitehall is too “tame, reactive and risk-averse”, the cabinet secretary has said, as she set out a “completely new approach” to managing the performance of civil servants.

With Andy Burnham and his deputy, Louise Haigh, in the audience, the UK’s most senior civil servant, Antonia Romeo, gave a lecture saying she would bring radical change to Whitehall as it deals with uncertainty caused by AI and global political tensions.

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Ukraine captures first Indonesian prisoner of war amid surge in Russian recruitment

Capture of man from Java follows reports that hundreds are being recruited from the south-east Asian country as Moscow seeks to boost its war effort

Ukraine says it has captured its first Indonesian prisoner of war, amid what it says is a spike in recruitment by Russia from the south-east Asian nation.

The 49-year-old man from Java was taken to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region to take part in a Russian assault, but managed to reach Ukrainian-held territory after the group came under drone attack, according to Ukraine’s state-run I Want to Live project. He was then captured by the Ukrainians.

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Thousands without shelter face lethal conditions in storm-hit Gaza as they wait for 150,000 tents

Charities warn of lack of protection amid health fears for more than 940,000 displaced people living in flood-prone areas

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been left in waterlogged and damaged tents after deadly storms at the weekend, while 150,000 new shelters are held outside Gaza awaiting Israeli approval to enter, aid agencies have said.

At least four Palestinian children and woman were killed as heavy rains and wind battered fragile, leaky tents. Thousands have been left without shelter and sanitation infrastructure has been destroyed, with sewage spewing into people’s tents.

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Fresh concerns raised over Gaza doctor held by Israel for 23 months without charge

Independent Israeli professor says Hussam Abu Safiya’s life will be at risk until he receives proper medical treatment

An independent professor who reviewed the medical records of a prominent Gaza doctor held in an Israeli prison without charge for nearly 23 months has raised serious concerns about his health.

Hussam Abu Safiya was detained at work on 27 December 2024 and later held in solitary confinement at Rakefet, a notorious underground prison.

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Youpla directors disqualified over collapsed funeral fund that targeted Aboriginal families

Three directors were fined a combined $90,000 in federal court judgment and disqualified from managing a corporation for between five and 10 years

Three directors of a collapsed funeral fund that marketed insurance to Aboriginal families have been banned from managing corporations for at least five years and ordered to pay a combined $90,000 after being found to have breached their duties to clients.

On Wednesday, federal court justice Geoffrey Kennett ordered the former director of the insurance company Youpla Group, previously the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund (ACBF), Jonathan Law, to pay the commonwealth $50,000 and disqualified him from managing corporations for six years.

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