DeSantis accused of playing politics as Florida shatters executions record 01. November 2025 (13:00) The state has killed 15 people this year with two more scheduled this month as death penalty in decline across USDeath penalty opponents have decried an unprecedented surge in executions ordered by Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, after the state maintained a record pace with last week’s killing of a military veteran.Norman Mearle Grim, who was convicted of the 1998 murder and rape of a neighbor, became the 15th person put to death this year, by lethal injection, at the Florida state prison in Starke on Wednesday. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Spain expresses regret over ‘injustice’ suffered by Mexico’s Indigenous people during conquest 01. November 2025 (12:31) Acknowledgment shows shift in tone after six years of diplomatic spats over colonial-era abusesSpain has acknowledged and expressed regret over the “pain and injustice” suffered by the Indigenous people of Mexico during its conquest of the Americas, heralding a shift in tone after six years of diplomatic spats over the abuses of the colonial period.In March 2019, Mexico’s then president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador wrote to King Felipe VI and Pope Francis, who was then the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics, urging them to apologise for the “massacres and oppression” of colonialism and the conquest. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
HMRC likely to have breached privacy laws in stopping child benefit – experts 01. November 2025 (12:00) Watchdog contacts tax authority after families’ payments stopped based on flawed travel dataMinisters may have breached privacy laws when they suspended the child benefit of thousands of families on the basis of flawed Home Office information, legal experts have said.At the same time, the UK’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, has contacted the national tax authority, HMRC, over the issues raised. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
What the New York mayor’s race will reveal about the Democratic party 01. November 2025 (12:00) The political differences between the two main candidates could have major implications for next year’s midtermsNew Yorkers will find out the identity of their next mayor on Tuesday, in a race that will decide who will run, and defend, the US’s largest city at a time when Donald Trump has threatened to send military troops there.Against that backdrop, New York has seen a mayoral election that has pitted two very different Democrats against one another. The race has become an increasingly bitter face-off, laced with alleged racism and Islamophobia, but it is the political differences between the two main candidates that could have major implications for how the Democratic party performs in next year’s midterm elections. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Reform councillor defects to Tories after party’s policies left him ‘uncomfortable’ 01. November 2025 (11:13) Dartford representative James Buchan says ‘devastating’ immigration plans had created a lot of fear and anxietyA Reform UK councillor has defected to the Conservatives, saying he became uncomfortable in Nigel Farage’s party.James Buchan, who sits in the south-east London borough of Dartford, said he had struggled with the idea of facing his relatives while a member of a party whose anti-immigration policies spread fear. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Bridget Phillipson ‘ready to take on unions’ over year 8 reading tests 01. November 2025 (10:00) Education secretary says mandatory test needed to tackle ‘shocking outcomes’ for many working-class childrenBridget Phillipson has said she is ready to take on the unions in a battle over compulsory reading tests for 13-year-olds and more extracurricular activities for all children to prevent them becoming “stuck in a doom loop of detachment” from school.The education secretary said that teaching unions, who have argued the tests were “unnecessary and distracting”, should “really think carefully” about whether they could justify standing in the way of tackling the “shocking outcomes” that exist for many working-class children. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Britain’s canals and rivers face lack of funds amid climate pressures, campaigners warn 01. November 2025 (09:00) Many waterways vulnerable to breaches and closures and face mounting maintenance costs, charity saysBritain’s network of canals and rivers is under strain from funding shortfalls and growing climate pressures, campaigners warn.Three-quarters of the country’s waterways face financial peril, according to the Inland Waterways Association (IWA), an independent charity advocating for Britain’s canals and rivers, as the country braces for heavier winter rainfall and intensifying summer droughts. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
UN expert urged to investigate Lebanon over alleged torture of Egyptian-Turkish poet 01. November 2025 (08:00) Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi has been imprisoned in the UAE for almost a year for criticising Emirati, Egyptian and Saudi governmentsThe UN special rapporteur on torture is being urged to investigate Lebanon’s role in the treatment of the Egyptian-Turkish poet and activist Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi, a dissident who has been imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates for more than 10 months over a post he made on social media.Legal counsel representing Qaradawi filed a complaint to the UN rapporteur on Thursday, asking it to examine the situation. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Britain one of least ‘nature-connected’ nations in world – with Nepal the most 01. November 2025 (08:00) Others languishing near bottom of 61-country study include Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan and SpainBritain is one of the least “nature connected” nations in the world, according to the first ever global study of how people relate to the natural world.Britain ranks 55th out of 61 countries in the study of 57,000 people, which looks at how attitudes towards nature are shaped by social, economic, geographical and cultural factors. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
‘It’s brutal, they feel very attacked’: budget uncertainty hits Southampton boat show 01. November 2025 (08:00) Rising prices and uncertainty over Rachel Reeves’s tax plans means this year many superyacht buyers are just browsing“What would happen if red wine got on that?” It is a common enough question when perusing a carpet store. But, as it happens, the same query crops up when shopping for a yacht. “Oh, you’d never get it off that decking,” the other half of a young couple replies as they size up one of the £2m triple-decker yachts moored at the recent Southampton international boat show.Top boat manufacturers descended on the port city from across Europe to show off bigger, better and bolder yachts than ever before, as well as lines of smaller sailing and motor boats. But the show, once a must-attend of the season alongside exhibitions in Cannes and Monaco, has shrunk by about 30% this year, according to some vendors’ estimates. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
