The Guardian

Labour leader would negotiate new deal with EU, which would be put to a public vote alongside remain Follow coverage of the Question Time leaders special Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed that he would take a “neutral stance” in a future Brexit referendum, after facing mounting pressure in recent days to say which side he will take. Labour’s policy is to negotiate a new Brexit deal within three months of coming to power – and then to put that deal to a referendum within six months. Continue reading...

UK lawyers and activists demand action as researchers find tenfold rise in usage Senior lawyers and women’s organisations have condemned the increasing use of “rough sex gone wrong” as a courtroom defence to the murder of women and called for a change to the law in the UK. In the wake of the conviction of British backpacker Grace Millane’s killer in New Zealand, researchers have revealed a tenfold rise over the past two decades in the number of times similar claims have been made in UK courts...

The Westpac scandal has brought the role of financial institutions in enabling child sexual abuse into sharp relief On 25 October plainclothes police barged through the red door of a family home in a dense neighbourhood in Rizal, a province two hours away from Manila. There they arrested a mother who was allegedly sexually exploiting her own 12-year-old daughter. The 45-year-old woman was clutching her phone. Police took it and then handcuffed her. Continue reading...

The prime minister is relentlessly pursuing the politics of panic, but validating voter anxiety can only go so far It’s possible I have Harold Bloom lodged in my head lately because he loomed large in my youth, and he died recently , but when I listen to Scott Morrison, increasingly I think of Bloom, and The Anxiety of Influence. If you are too young or productively educated to have encountered Bloom, he is the literary critic who held that all writers have to confront the writers who came be...

Home Office unhappy with Foreign Office for potentially opening door to more Isis returnees No other British children are expected to be repatriated from Syria in the foreseeable future, despite the announcement from the foreign secretary on Thursday that a small number of orphans who had been caught up in the conflict with Islamic State had been brought home. Home Office officials view the repatriation of the children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as highly exceptional – and there ...

President of the European Central Bank says US/China tariff war should be seen as an opportunity Christine Lagarde has called for European governments to boost innovation and growth with higher rates of public investment, in her first major speech as president of the European Central Bank. Speaking to an audience of bankers in Frankfurt , Lagarde said that rising trade barriers triggered by the US/China tariff war should be grasped by European governments as an opportunity to build a stronger...

In wide-ranging speech, actor accuses tech giants of running the ‘greatest propaganda machine in history’ Sacha Baron Cohen has denounced tech giants Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google as “the greatest propaganda machine in history” and culpable for a surge in “murderous attacks on religious and ethnic minorities”. Baron Cohen was speaking on Thursday at Never Is Now, the Anti-Defamation League’s summit on antisemitism and hate in New York, where he was presented with the organisation’s in...

Girl in 128-year-old image looks similar to activist in both the intensity of her stare and braided hair, prompting Twitter jokes Could Greta Thunberg be a time traveller sent from the future to save humanity from the unfolding climate crisis? A cadre Twitter users seem to think so , after the photograph of a young Klondike gold miner bearing a striking resemblance to the Swedish activist was discovered this week. The now viral 1891 image of three children operating a gold mine in Canada’s Yu...

Donald Trump told Fox & Friends he wants to go on trial, which means he would like to be impeached. The president complained that Republicans couldn’t call witnesses during the House impeachment hearings, and suggested a trial would enable him to quiz the whistleblower and Adam Schiff, House intelligence committee chair Trump suggests he wants to be impeached and says 'I want a trial' – live Continue reading...

President sounded off on public hearings on Fox & Friends, praised Giuliani as ‘one of the great crime fighters’ and called Pelosi ‘crazy as a bedbug’ In this defining moment for America, support the Guardian’s independent journalism. Make a contribution 2.44pm GMT Barack Obama has warned Democrats against adopting “purity tests” in the primary race , saying the party needs to be able to appeal to a wide range of voters. Speaking at a question-and-answer session with DNC chair Tom Perez in Ca...

Israeli opposition parties scramble to find legal channels to strip weakened PM of power Benjamin Netanyahu’s political opponents have moved to capitalise on a series of damning bribery indictments levelled against the Israeli leader, hoping to further weaken him at one of the lowest points in his decades-long career. The opposition Labor party was expected to file petitions to the high court of justice to force the country’s longest-serving prime minister to step down. Continue reading...