The Guardian

Tens of thousands of high school students across New South Wales sit the first test of their final exams “How does the composer of your prescribed text offer you opportunities to examine assumptions about human strength and vulnerability?” This was the bamboozling English question tens of thousands of year 12 students sat down to answer on the first day of their final school exams. Continue readi…

Marches in Delhi against changes to voting registration led to dragnets, internet blackouts – and questions about India’s electoral independence. Plus, the cinematographer capturing the beauty of the mundane Months of simmering public anger have given rise to a season of discontent in India. In its latest iteration, the demand is for the removal of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and th…

Fund upgrades UK’s GDP growth forecast for 2026 to 1.3%, but says it is likely to ‘edge down’ next year IMF warns global economy ‘could soon test the limits of resilience’ John Healey should “stay the course” and continue repairing the UK’s public finances, the International Monetary Fund’s top economist has said, after the fund lifted its growth forecast for Britain. Little more than a fortnight…

Case of couple who wed legally in Austria exposes clash between EU court ruling and national restrictions A same-sex couple are suing authorities in Slovakia for refusing to register their Austrian marriage, testing whether a landmark EU court ruling can turn recognition abroad into legal security at home. Their fight exposes a clash between European obligations and national restrictions – and wh…

Exclusive: Homes demolished along east coast after being deemed too vulnerable to live in, figures reveal Seaside communities along the east coast of England have lost at least 183 homes to coastal erosion and landslides over the past 16 years, figures obtained by the Guardian reveal. After councils judged properties across the Yorkshire and East Anglian coasts too vulnerable to remain safely occ…

In today’s newsletter: The prime minister is calling for closer ties with the EU, but what could this actually amount to? Good morning. After a holiday spent contracting nursery bugs from an 11-month-old, it’s good to return. Yesterday, Andy Burnham marked his first day back after party conference by calling for a closer relationship with the EU and drawing a line under a decade of “drift and div…

‘Round-up’ pricing in items such as coffee suggests increases are exceeding the typical 1.5% surcharge fee Follow our Australia politics live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Businesses are using the recent ban on credit card surcharges as “cover” to pass along much larger price increases to customers, experts say, as cafes and restaurants strug…

Security forces use helicopters to rescue dozens of people as the two storms damage infrastructure and cause flash flooding At least five people have died after Hurricane Simon and Tropical Storm Rachel pummelled Mexico’s Pacific coast, causing flooding that downed trees and electricity poles, blocked roads and inundated homes. Simon claimed the life of a 71-year-old man who died when a wall coll…

Aircraft taken out of operation after flight from Perth after the discovery of parasitic insects on board Qantas has been forced to ground a plane in Rome after bedbugs were discovered on the aircraft on its way from Perth. The parasitic insects were found in the front of the economy section of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner as it made its way from Perth to Rome for the QF5 flight on 9 October, a sour…

Over 10m people have tuned in for episodes of new season of BBC hit as mass TV audiences become increasingly rare For the celebrities chosen as traitors in the BBC’s juggernaut reality show, the task is simple – kill off fellow contestants without getting caught. Yet with the new series of Celebrity Traitors once again attracting huge audiences, its UK producers are delighting in one of the show’…

Cambridge University study suggests stark gender divide in misdiagnosis, with women also waiting longer for treatment Women with autoimmune conditions are up to 74% more likely than men to be told their symptoms are psychological or psychosomatic, and face much longer waits for a diagnosis and treatment, a study suggests. Hundreds of millions of people – about one in 10 globally – are affected by…

ZyMix platform has contract with Tencent, which US alleges has links to People’s Liberation Army A new messaging and payment “super app” marketed at British students uses servers owned by a Chinese company that has been put on a US military blacklist for its alleged affiliation to the People’s Liberation Army. ZyMix, which is being pushed on university campuses as the UK’s first super app designe…

Media adviser who married federal One Nation MP in 2023 confirms she has started working part-time for the party’s state executive Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast Vikki Campion, the News Corp columnist and wife of the federal One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce, has begun working as an adviser for the party in New South Wales in the lead-up to the March state election. Campio…

National park officials took the precautionary measure to limit tourist access after heavy rain caused the Iguazu River to flow at six times the normal rate Heavy rainfall fuelled by a supersized El Niño weather pattern briefly forced Argentinian authorities to close tourist access to the famed Iguazu Falls, amid fears that rapidly rising water levels would cause the river to burst its banks. Nat…

World Economic Outlook says states’ oil stocks are low and budgets are overstretched, as it upgrades UK GDP growth forecast for 2026 Developing nations face triple shock, UN warns The global economy “could soon test the limits of resilience”, as emergency oil stocks run low and government budgets become overstretched, the International Monetary Fund has warned. In its twice-yearly World Economic …