‘Halloweenmas’: how the spooky one-nighter turned into a month-long spectacular 11. October 2026 (09:00) Welcome to Halloweenmas, weeks of themed fun and gifts – from costume parties to decorating trees – without the stress, rules or cost of ChristmasThe tree is up, the wreath is hanging on the front door and you’ve just opened your advent calendar. All told, it’s beginning to feel a lot like … Halloween.If it sounds like the stuff of nightmares then that’s the point: Britons are increasingly decorating their homes with ghoulish versions of Christmas traditions. Think of it as Halloweenmas. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
‘It was a terrible thing’: Panama declares state of emergency as quake aftershocks rattle communities 11. October 2026 (08:56) More than 100 aftershocks as high as magnitude-5.8 recorded after two quakes toppled buildings and prompted evacuationsPanama’s government has declared a state of emergency on Saturday as the aftershocks of two powerful earthquakes that roiled the country shook communities for hours.Officials did not attribute any deaths to Friday’s 7.7- and 6.6-magnitude earthquakes, but reported damages in all 10 of Panama’s provinces and two Indigenous territories. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
A Trump impersonator and opera singers: CPAC was a spectacle, but the right still can’t agree how to take down Labor 11. October 2026 (08:47) Preferences proved the sticking point at the conference as conservatives face the prospect of a third successive election defeatGet our new political email, free app or daily news podcastMany mainstream Australians would feel as if they’d been dropped in a foreign country at the Conservative Political Action Conference, lost amid oblique references to transgender swimmers, blue hair, women’s bathrooms, jokes about falling off stages and Matt Canavan in hi-vis and speed dealer sunnies.It’s an interesting spectacle. At this year’s conference in Brisbane, rightwing campaigner Monica Smit was deep in conversation with a Donald Trump impersonator, opera singers belted out the national anthem (the first verse, twice, for unknown reasons), senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and her folk singer husband sang the anthem again, and Karl Stefanovic jokingly thanking CPAC for “rudely interrupting my unemployment”.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...(The Guardian)
