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Prince Andrew said he would no longer use his titles, including as Duke of York, or his honours; his former wife will be known as Sarah Ferguson and no longer Duchess of York. The posthumous memoirs of Virginia Giuffre repeated her allegations of sexual abuse against him, which he has denied. George Abaraonye, who had rejoiced at the death of the right-wing US campaigner Charlie Kirk, was prevented from becoming president of the Oxford Union by a no-confidence vote against him. Lady Annabel Goldsmith died aged 91.
Aston Villa was told by the advisory group responsible for issuing match safety certificates that no Maccabi Tel Aviv fans would be allowed at their football game on 6 November because police had warned it was ‘high risk’. Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said it was the ‘wrong decision’. Maccabi then said they would not accept a ticket allocation anyway because fan safety was in doubt. A match in Tel Aviv between Hapoel and Maccabi was cancelled after violence and nine arrests. Britain returned 16 Channel migrants to France, bringing to 42 the number returned under the ‘one in, one out’ agreement. Eurostar said it planned to run double-decker trains through the Channel Tunnel. The Metropolitan Police said it would no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents. Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, insisted that the focus of the national grooming gangs inquiry would ‘not change’; four victims of such abuse had left an inquiry panel amid fears it was being watered down. Faida Elhabib, a Moroccan asylum seeker, was jailed for 21 months after biting a rare ant-plant at Oxford Botanic Garden and stealing £3,000 of items from Magdalen College.
Sir Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, said: ‘I am frustrated when opportunities to prosecute national security threatening activity are not followed through.’ He was referring to the dropping of a Chinese spying case against two Britons, who have denied all wrongdoing. The government delayed to 10 December a decision on plans for a big fat Chinese embassy at the former Royal Mint; China called upon Britain to ‘honour its commitments at once’ or face ‘consequences’. Plans for a rare earths refinery in East Yorkshire were dropped by developer Pensana, which is to seek investment in America instead. Inflation remained at 3.8 per cent for the third month in September. Penguin and Club bars are now described as ‘chocolate flavour’ because the cocoa in them has been reduced.
Abroad
President Donald Trump of America told President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to cede Donetsk to Russia or President Vladimir Putin would ‘destroy’ Ukraine. They met a day after Trump spent two hours on the phone to Putin. Supporters of Ukraine had hoped America would supply it with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Trump said he would meet Putin in Budapest, but the meeting was then called off. Russia attacked Ukraine’s railways with drones. Ukraine hit a Russian chemical plant at Bryansk with British-made Storm Shadow missiles. Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s President, told Putin he would honour all past agreements, which implied that Russia’s two bases in Syria would be retained. Israel launched air strikes on southern Gaza after its troops were said to have come under fire from Hamas. Pakistan and the Taliban government of Afghanistan agreed an ‘immediate ceasefire’ after more than a week of fighting.
Snapchat, several banks and HM Revenue and Customs were among hundreds of organisations that had online services disrupted after a failure in Amazon’s cloud computing connections. America and Australia signed an agreement on the supply of rare earths. John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, was indicted on federal charges of sharing top secret information. He said: ‘I have become the latest target in weaponising the Justice Department.’ Trump authorised covert CIA operations inside Venezuela. The Christian Democrat Rodrigo Paz was elected President of Bolivia. Uruguay became the first country in Latin America to legalise assisted suicide.
Thieves broke into the Louvre and stole 19th-century jewels belonging to French royalty, dropping a crown of Empress Eugénie on the way out. A Chinese woman was charged with theft of gold nuggets worth about €1.5 million from the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, began a five-year jail sentence in solitary confinement for his own safety. CSH
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