Top story: China and Russia ‘didn’t show up’ – Biden
Hello, I’m Warren Murray. There is a prosperity of news today, and prosperity ought to be shared.
The heatwaves and wildfires that caused devastation in Europe this summer would not have happened without global heating, new analysis shows. The summer of 2021 was the hottest ever recorded on the continent, with average temperatures about 1C above normal that caused wildfires and premature deaths. There is a stark message from scientists to leaders at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow: if countries do not achieve drastic reductions in carbon emissions by 2030 and hit net zero by 2050, the record heat of 2021 will strike every year by the end of the century.
Meanwhile a new report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) and PwC says creating an international price for carbon emissions could reduce global greenhouse gases by 12% at a cost of less than 1% of global GDP. The cost would be less than the economic losses triggered by the fallout of a runaway climate crisis, with the “carbon revenues” raked in from polluters used to help hard-pressed households or ploughed back into green industries.
Joe Biden has attacked the failure of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to attend the Cop26 summit. “They didn’t show up … It is a gigantic issue and they just walked away,” he said, also criticising Russia and Vladimir Putin. “How do you do that and claim to have any leadership mantle?”
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‘Hope was never lost’ – Four-year-old Cleo Smith, who went missing from a campsite in Western Australia more than two weeks ago, has been found alive and well. Police said they had found Cleo alone in a house in Carnarvon at 1am on Wednesday and arrested a man soon afterwards. Cleo was reunited with her parents a short time later. The state police commissioner, Chris Dawson, said police had a 36-year-old man in custody and there was “no family connection”.
“To find a little girl, a vulnerable little girl, after 18 days, you know, obviously people think the worst, but importantly, hope was never lost,” Dawson said. The deputy commissioner, Col Blanch, said police broke into the locked house and found Cleo in one of the rooms. “One of the officers picked her up into his arms and asked her, ‘What’s your name?’ “She said, ‘My name is Cleo.’”
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Midweek catch-up
> In Virginia, the Republican Glenn Youngkin will be the next governor after an upset victory over the Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe that is a blow to Joe Biden. Some consolation for the Democrats in New York City, though, where the former police officer Eric Adams will be the next mayor, after defeating Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, in Tuesday’s election.
Adams, 61, will in January succeed Bill de Blasio, a fellow Democrat whose two terms as mayor will be up.
> Boris Johnson is to back an unprecedented bid today to overthrow an independent inquiry that found the former cabinet minister Owen Paterson committed an “egregious” breach of lobbying rules.
> Met police officers PC Deniz Jaffer, 48, and PC Jamie Lewis, 33, have entered guilty pleas to misconduct in public office after sharing photographs from the crime scene in a London park where sisters Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, were found stabbed to death.
> Facebook has announced it will stop using facial recognition to identify people in photographs and delete the “faceprint” data of around 1bn users, due to the “many concerns” about the technology. Here is what it means for users.
> A British waitress has won her case in Australia’s highest court against the “backpacker tax” under which overseas workers have for years paid a higher rate of income tax than Australians. Five judges unanimously agreed Catherine Addy had faced “more burdensome taxation” because of her nationality.
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Mobile testing pay cut – NHS mobile test-and-trace units run by Mitie are cutting the guaranteed pay of workers by a third after winning a new contract from the government. The outsourcing firm, which employs about 1,000 people at the mobile sites, has told workers that from 8 November they will be guaranteed eight hours’ pay rather than 12 for each daily shift, slashing secure pay to £80 a day from £120. In the US, the CDC has fully approved giving Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine to children aged five to 11.
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Dacre’s next move – The prospect of the former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre becoming head of the media regulator Ofcom may have moved a step closer after his apparent departure from his residual figurehead role of chairman and editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers. The exit clears the way for Dacre, 72, to make a new application to be chair of Ofcom after he failed the interview process on the previous attempt despite the backing of Downing Street. The new job advert has been rewritten to favour a more confrontational candidate after Dacre was judged not to have met the original criteria. Dacre stood down as editor of the Daily Mail in 2018.
Today in Focus podcast: If China tried to invade Taiwan
With a record number of Chinese fighters flying sorties over Taiwan in October, and rhetoric on all sides becoming more heated, many observers say the past few weeks have been the most tense in the region for decades. How serious is the prospect of an attempt by Beijing to take over the island – and would it draw the US into a major international conflict?
Lunchtime read: Are interest rates about to go up?
It is a sign of the confusion surrounding the Bank of England’s interest rate decision on Thursday that investors are unusually divided over which direction the central bank will go, writes Phillip Inman.
Sport
Cristiano Ronaldo produced two equalisers, including a volley in stoppage time, to earn a vital point in a 2-2 Champions League draw with Atalanta in Bergamo. Hakim Ziyech’s second-half goal earned Chelsea a 1-0 win at Malmö to keep up their pursuit of Juventus in Group H, who secured their progress with a 4-1 home win against Zenit. Antonio Conte said he was determined to turn Tottenham back into contenders for trophies after being confirmed as the club’s new manager on a £15m-a-year contract to June 2023. Joe Root fancies the shellacking England’s Twenty20 side handed out to Australia last Saturday has increased confidence before the Ashes campaign. Pakistan became the first side to guarantee their place in the T20 World Cup semi-finals after comfortably beating Namibia by 45 runs in Abu Dhabi.
Kobe Bryant’s widow will not have to undergo psychiatric testing for her lawsuit over graphic photos of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed the basketball star, a federal judge has ruled. Yorkshire are facing the wrath of senior political figures over their handling of Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of racism at Headingley. Alun Wyn Jones has been ruled out for the rest of Wales’ autumn Tests after it was confirmed he requires surgery on the shoulder injury sustained in the defeat against New Zealand on Saturday. The All Blacks have expressed their sadness in the wake of Carl Hayman’s early onset dementia and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) diagnosis at the age of 41. And after 109 years as an Olympic sport, modern pentathlon’s governing body has voted secretly to remove horse riding and replace it with cycling, the Guardian can reveal.
Business
Shares have been mostly lower in Asia, weighed down by concerns over disrupted supply chains and shipping, despite the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s first close above 36,000 points. Benchmarks fell in most regional markets apart from Sydney and Taipei. Tokyo markets are closed for a holiday. The FTSE is seen opening lower as well, while the pound is worth $1.363 and €1.176 at time of writing.
The papers
The Guardian’s front-page lead today is “Devastating fires of 2021 pinned on global heating”, accompanied by “World’s top banks vow to fund shift to net zero”. More than 450 financial institutions in 45 countries with assets worth $130tn are taking part in the pledge, the UK government will announce today, but experts and campaigners complain they are still free to pour cash into fossil fuels and need only divert a small slice of their funding to low-carbon ends in the next decade. The Financial Times suggests we’ve seen it all before: “Banks under fire for diluting green pledges since Paris climate accord”.
The Times has “PM hails deal to cut methane emissions” while the Metro looks a day behind with “Pledge to save Earth’s lungs”, which is about the pact to halt deforestation. The Telegraph has “PM seeks to replace standards watchdog” as it leads on the Owen Paterson saga. “Booster jabs roll-out for over-50s has stalled” warns the i – here is the Guardian’s version. “60,000 carers face sack over jabs” – that’s the Mirror on vaccine refuseniks and the “Covid worker crisis”. “How low can the Met go?” – the Daily Mail takes aim at Cressida Dick again, this time over the conviction of two officers who took and shared photos from the scene of two sisters’ murder.
“Free blood pressure monitors to save lives” – the Express on an NHS public health initiative. The Sun’s jumble of front-page furniture translates as Richard Madeley will replace Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain.
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