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Green party MP Caroline Lucas to stand down at next election

Former leader says her role in parliament means she has struggled to focus on tackling climate issuesUK politics live – latest updatesCaroline Lucas, the Green party’s former leader and its only MP, has announced she is to stand down at the next election.Lucas told her constituents in Brighton Pavilion, a seat she has represented since 2010, that serving as an MP meant she had “struggled” to spend the time she wanted campaigning on the climate crisis. Continue reading...

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Less than half in Britain back gender-affirming care for trans teenagers

Britain also ranks low in 30-country poll on support for access to public facilities matching gender identityLess than half of people in Great Britain agree that transgender teenagers should be allowed to receive counselling and hormone treatment, polling suggests.Britain placed 28th out of 30 countries for the proportion of people agreeing that teenagers with parental consent should be able to access “gender-affirming” care. Only Hungary, which banned transgender people from legally changing their gender in 2020, and the US recorded lower levels of support than Britain’s 47%. Continue reading...

Thursday briefing: The Kherson dam disaster has left thousands of Ukrainians adrift – and that’s just the start

In today’s newsletter: After months of shelling, now thousands have been flooded – a Guardian reporter tells the story on the groundSign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. Two days after the destruction of Ukraine’s Nova Kakhovka dam led to widespread flooding, it’s clear that we are only beginning to appreciate the impact of what happened – and what it could mean for the environment, local agriculture and the course of the war.At the heart of this story, however, are the people who live downstream on the Dnipro river, who have already endured months on the frontline and now find themselves living through a personal and environmental calamity.UK news | Boris and Carrie Johnson hosted a close friend overnight at Chequers when a number of Covid restrictions were in place, the Guardian has been told. Johnson’s spokesperson said the stay was “entirely lawful” and sources close to him said Maloney was allowed to be there for childcare reasons at a time when Carrie Johnson was pregnant.Immigration | A Guardian investigation has found that the Home Office has provided more than £3m in funding to Turkish border forces in the last year to prevent migrants reaching the UK. The Home Office has also supplied Turkish border forces, including the national police and the coastguard, with equipment and training.Environment | The United Arab Emirates’s state oil company has been able to read emails to and from the Cop28 climate summit office, the Guardian revealed. The UAE is hosting the climate summit in November and its president, Sultan Al Jaber, is also chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. The revelations have been called “explosive” and a “scandal” by lawmakers.Politics | Woking council, the most heavily indebted local authority in England, has declared it is effectively bankrupt after a risky investment spree involving hotels and skyscrapers by its former Conservative administration left it facing a £1.2bn deficit.Media | The Daily and Sunday Telegraph are to be put up for sale after the Barclay family lost control of their crown jewel media assets in a bitter row with the newspaper group’s lender. Potential buyers include DMGT – the owner of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, MailOnline, Metro and the i. Continue reading...

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Australia moves to ban display and trade of Nazi symbols

Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus speaks to the media during a press conference in Melbourne. Nazi symbols will be banned from being publicly displayed under new laws, with those found to have broken them facing jail time. Joel Carrett/AAP/dpaThe Australian government will move to ban the public display and sale of Nazi symbols and paraphernalia, Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said on Thursday. Dreyfus said he would introduce a bill to the government next week, seeking to ban the public display of the Nazi swastika - also known as the Hakenkreuz - and the SS Schutzstaffel symbol, he told Australian broadcaster ABC. The trade of any items that bare the symbols will also be banned. "We are going to send a message that this spreading of hatred and violence and anti-Semitism has got no place in Australia," he said. "We need to send a message that there is no place in Australia for this kind of behaviour. There is no place in Australia for people who want to glorify the horrors of the Holocaust." The display and use of the swastika, a religious symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, would be exempt from the ban. The public display for academic, educational, artistic, literary, journalistic or scientific purposes would also be exempt. The Nazi salute would not be included in the ban, Dreyfus said. Instead, it would be up to individual states to make that decision. Last year, Victoria became the first Australian state to ban the public display of the Nazi swastika. In March the state expanded the legislation to include the Nazi salute following clashes between transgender rights protesters and neo-Nazis in Melbourne. Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus speaks to the media during a press conference in Melbourne. Nazi symbols will be banned from being publicly displayed under new laws, with those found to have broken them facing jail time. Joel Carrett/AAP/dpa

Authorities recover train from Austrian tunnel after fire forces evacuation

A train is being recovered from an Austrian tunnel where it got stuck when a fire broke out, forcing rescuers to evacuate the 151 people on board