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Justin Welby resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury, after not reporting to the authorities what he knew in 2013 of the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth QC (who ran Christian summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s and died in 2018). An independent review by Keith Makin found last week that Smyth abused more than 100 young men and boys sexually and by beating. ‘When I was informed in 2013 and told that police had been notified, I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow,’ Mr Welby said. Gary Lineker, who had presented Match of the Day since 1999, agreed to stand down at the end of the season.
Sue Gray turned down the job as the Prime Minister’s envoy to the nations; the mysterious role was said to be hers after she was dropped in October as his chief of staff. Sir Keir Starmer appointed Jonathan Powell, 68, Tony Blair’s old chief of staff, as his national security adviser. David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, said his description of Donald Trump as a ‘woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath’ was ‘old news’. At the Cop29 climate change summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, Sir Keir promised to reduce the United Kingdom’s emissions by 81 per cent of 1990 levels by 2035. In Holland, Shell won an appeal against a judgment requiring it to cut its carbon emissions by 45 per cent.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was published, sponsored by Kim Leadbeater, a Labour MP. June Spencer, who first played Peggy in The Archers in 1950, died aged 105. Frank Auerbach, the painter, died aged 93. The Bank of England cut interest rates from 5 per cent to 4.75 per cent. Unemployment rose to 4.3 per cent in the three months to September, from 4 per cent in the previous quarter. Pay in the three months to September grew at an annual rate of 4.8 per cent – the lowest in more than two years. Seven million workers in Britain, one in five, were found to have been born overseas. In the seven days to 11 November, 1,628 migrants arrived in small boats. A report into the administration of Tower Hamlets in London and its ‘culture of patronage’ opened the way to the government appointing ‘envoys’ to monitor its workings.
Abroad
Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, reposted an Instagram picture of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine captioned: ‘You’re 38 days from losing your allowance.’ President Emmanuel Macron of France and Sir Keir Starmer, in Paris on Armistice Day, expressed ‘their determination to support Ukraine unfailingly’. Ukraine said that on 9 November Russia launched 145 drones towards the country. Russia said it had intercepted 84 Ukrainian drones, including some approaching Moscow. Russia suffered its worst month for casualties in the war, according to Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, Britain’s chief of the defence staff, who put Russia’s dead and wounded at about 1,500 a day in October, bringing its casualties to 700,000 since February 2022.
The final tally in the US presidential election was 312 electoral college votes for Donald Trump and 226 for his Democrat opponent, Kamala Harris. He also decisively won the popular vote. The Republicans, having secured a majority in the Senate, edged towards one in the House of Representatives. Elon Musk, 53, was appointed to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge, a name echoing his favoured cryptocurrency, Dogecoin); he was to be joined by Vivek Ramaswamy, 39. Pete Hegseth, 44, a Fox News Channel host, was to be secretary of defence. Senator Marco Rubio, 53, was expected to be secretary of state. Susie Wiles, 67, was to be the White House chief of staff, the first woman in the role. Tom Homan, 62, was to be the ‘border tsar’. The New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik, 40, becomes ambassador to the UN. The US government charged Farhad Shakeri, 51, believed to be in Iran, over an alleged plot in September to assassinate Donald Trump.
Qatar suspended its mediation between Israel and Hamas until ‘the parties show their willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war’. After a 30-day period for improving access, America said Israel had not breached US laws on blocking aid. Israel put on rescue flights after youths on scooters criss-crossed Amsterdam hunting down supporters of the visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv football team. The International Criminal Court announced an investigation into claims of sexual misconduct against its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan. Germany will hold elections on 23 February, after the collapse of its governing coalition. CSH
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