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A white paper outlined measures to counter economic inactivity (which had risen by September to 41.2 per cent among those aged 16 to 24): everyone aged 18 to 21 would be offered an apprenticeship, training, education or help to find a job; Jobcentres would be rebranded as the National Jobs and Careers Service. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said: ‘What I haven’t heard are many alternatives’ to the tax rises imposed by October’s Budget; she was speaking to the Confederation of British Industry. A petition on the parliament website, accusing Labour of breaking promises and calling for a general election, gathered more than 2.7 million signatures; ‘There will be plenty of people who didn’t want us in the first place,’ commented Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister.
The government said it would fulfil its ‘legal obligations’ over an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court if Benjamin Netanyahu were to visit Britain; the court also issued warrants against Yoav Gallant and the Hamas leader Mohammed Deif, who Israel said was killed in an air strike on Gaza in July. But Lord Wolfson KC, the shadow attorney general, said that Mr Netanyahu’s immunity as a head of government remained. Drones were seen over RAF stations at Lakenheath, Mildenhall and Feltwell, all used by the US Air Force. A storm named Bert brought floods and disrupted rail travel. Bad weather prevented any migrants in small boats arriving in the seven days to 25 November.
Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, opposed the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill that was before parliament, writing that ‘the experience of sitting with a fatally ill baby girl did not convince me of the case for assisted dying; it convinced me of the value and imperative of good end-of-life care’. The Supreme Court considered the question: ‘Is a person with a full gender recognition certificate which recognises that their gender is female, a “woman” for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010?’ The City of London decided to close Smithfield Market after 2028. The licence of the Groucho Club in Soho was suspended for 28 days while police investigated a serious crime. William Hague, Conservative leader 1997 to 2001, was elected as the 160th chancellor of the University of Oxford. He will serve a ten-year term. John Prescott, deputy prime minister 1997 to 2007, renowned for delivering a left jab to a protestor who had thrown an egg at him in Rhyl, died aged 86.
Abroad
Russia used an Oreshnik hypersonic long-range ballistic missile against Dnipro, and President Vladimir Putin went on television to say that such missiles would be used again. Russia made more than 1,400 air strikes on Ukraine in a day; Ukrainian drones were reported to have hit the Kaluganefteprodukt oil depot, located south-east of Moscow. Satellite imagery of oil tankers arriving at a terminal indicated that Russia had supplied North Korea with a million barrels of oil since March. President Putin presented North Korea’s main zoo with a lion, two brown bears, two yaks and five cockatoos.
Donald Trump said he would impose 25 per cent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico (as a bargaining chip to counter immigration), and add an extra 10 per cent on goods from China (as a bargaining chip to counter illicit drugs), on the first day of his presidency. The 2020 election interference prosecution against Mr Trump was dropped as he had gained immunity by his election. He nominated Pam Bondi as attorney general, after Mike Gaetz withdrew his name. Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, backed rules to ban transgender women from women’s lavatories on Capitol Hill. Calin Georgescu, a far-right, pro-Russia candidate, shook Romania by taking the lead in the first round of the presidential election. Rescuers amputated the leg of a man in his sixties to free him from rocks trapping him in rapids in the Franklin river in Tasmania.
Israel and Hezbollah began a ceasefire that Lebanon agreed to and America and France had helped to broker. Earlier, an Israeli air strike in Beirut had killed at least 29 people. At least 24 people died after two boats carrying Somali migrants capsized off the coast of Madagascar. A tourist boat that had left port near Marsa Alam, Egypt, on a diving trip, sank in the Red Sea, and 11 of the 44 aboard were drowned or missing. Five tourists who visited Vang Vieng in Laos died of suspected methanol poisoning. Ivory Coast were all out for seven runs against Nigeria in the lowest-ever score for a T20 international. CSH
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