Liz Truss

Independent
Liz Truss has a matter of days to row back on controversial tax and welfare cuts or face a parliamentary rebellion which could see her removed from Downing Street by Christmas, Conservative MPs have warned.
As the prime minister arrived in Birmingham for her first annual conference as leader, senior backbenchers told The Independent that MPs across the party are “livid” at suggestions she plans to renege on a promised benefit uprating to pay for tax cuts for the rich in chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget.
One described the combination of austerity for the poor and giveaways for the wealthy as “electoral suicide” and confirmed Tory MPs were talking to Labour on parliamentary means of stopping it.

Education

Express
Hundreds of thousands of school teachers are set to go on strike across England over pay disputes, in a move which may close down schools.
Britain’s largest teaching union, the National Education Union (NEU) has figures to suggest that nine in ten teachers support going on strike. This research is based on the initial responses from a preliminary survey the organisation set out on September 24.
The NEU sent the survey to the union’s 450,000 members, and there are still two weeks left to run.
However, an inside source with the union has suggested that it is very likely the teacher’s union will now hold a formal vote for industrial action, and strikes may happen before the Christmas break.

Telegraph
Remote exams are driving a surge in cheating accusations as students are tempted to pay for answers or use WhatsApp groups to share information, legal experts have warned.
Kingsley Napley said there was a 60 per cent increase in students seeking help to defend themselves against cheating allegations this year. The law firm has received more than 60 enquiries relating to academic misconduct this year, of which 23 were made in September alone.
During one online exam, a student had used a website Chegg.com, where you can upload an exam question and see if anyone has answered it before or give you pointers, said lawyers. The university was alerted that the student had uploaded the question using their university email address and launched a case of academic misconduct, even though the student had not used the answer.
In another case, an investigation was launched by a university after it spotted that two students had submitted work from the same IP address. They were in the same flat and could not prove they were working in separate rooms.

Times
Hundreds of thousands of teachers are poised to strike before Christmas over sub-inflation pay rises, in a move that threatens to shut schools across England.
Internal figures compiled by the National Education Union (NEU), the country’s largest education union, suggest as many as nine in ten teachers are prepared to back industrial action.
The figures, while provisional, are based on the compilation of several thousand initial responses from a preliminary ballot, which the NEU launched on September 24.
While the online ballot still has a fortnight left to run, an insider said that the first wave of responses suggested it was inevitable that the union would now move to a formal vote for strike action.

NHS

Telegraph
Record numbers of nurses are quitting the NHS in England, according to a new analysis, with stress and work-life balance driving the exodus.
More than 40,000 have left the health service in the past year – one in nine of the workforce, according to official data examined by the Nuffield Trust.
And a survey by NHS Providers revealed this week that nurses are leaving the NHS to take up better paid jobs in the hospitality sector.
The think tank said many of these were highly skilled and knowledgeable nurses and there is increasing evidence that stress and the need for a better work-life balance is driving them to leave.
Unless something is done the Government will struggle to hit its target to recruit an extra 50,000 nurses in England during this Parliament, it said.
The Department of Health said it would publish a workforce strategy and is halfway towards its recruitment target.
But data shows there were just 4,000 more joiners than leavers, meaning the high number of leavers is almost cancelling out the rise in new recruits.

Economy

Mail
One of Liz Truss‘ key allies said Britain has been living in a ‘fool’s paradise’ and should prepare for austerity, as the Prime Minister stood by Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget despite its ‘disruption’ to the markets.
Ms Truss made it clear she has no intention of back-tracking on the government’s £45 billion worth of tax cuts, despite a new poll showing 51 per cent of voters want her to resign.
While Simon Clarke, the levelling-up secretary, spoke of trimming the fat as he expressed his worry over how the ‘extremely large’ state will align with a lower tax economy.
He told The Times: ‘My big concern in politics is that western Europe is just living in a fool’s paradise whereby we can be ever less productive relative to our peers, and yet still enjoy a very large welfare state and persist in thinking that the two are somehow compatible over the medium to long term.

Guardian
Three-quarters of UK voters, including a staggering 71% of those who backed the Conservatives at the last general election, believe the prime minister, Liz Truss, and the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, have “lost control” of the economy, according to a devastating poll for the Observer on the eve of the Tory conference.
The survey by Opinium – which also reveals that Labour has extended its lead by a massive 14 percentage points in the last week alone, from 5 points to 19 points, and that Truss’s ratings are now lower than Boris Johnson’s at the height of the Partygate scandal – comes as some Tory MPs are beginning to demand the new prime minister’s removal from No 10 after less than a month in office.
Other senior party figures are warning that the damage to the party’s reputation for economic management resulting from Kwarteng’s tax-cutting budget, is so serious that it will take many years to repair.

Illegal immigrants

Sun
NEW Home Secretary Suella Braverman last night admitted the Channel migrants crisis is “out of control”.
More than 30,000 have arrived in dinghies on our shores this year — ten times the total in 2018.
But Ms Braverman has vowed to “take dramatic action” and change controversial laws to stop illegal immigrants playing the system.
Top of her list is reforming the Modern Slavery Act so it is easier to boot out Channel migrants and foreign criminals.
In her first interview since getting the top Cabinet job, she also admitted some police forces have been “captured” by woke groups and “pander to political correctness”.
She vowed to cut immigration numbers despite moves by new PM Liz Truss to let more  high-skilled foreigners into Britain to boost growth.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun on Sunday on the eve of Tory Party conference in Birmingham, she promised to get tough on law and order.

Covid

Independent
The UK is heading into a “devastating” Covid wave this autumn exacerbated by a drop in testing and inadequate surveillance of new immune-evasive subvariants, experts have warned.
Covid-19 infections in the UK have risen 14 per cent, according to the latest figures.
Some 1.1 million people in private households tested positive for coronavirus in the latest survey, which covers the seven days to 17 September in England and the week to 20 September in the other three nations, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
It is the first time the UK-wide total has been above one million since late August, though it is still some way below the 3.8 million weekly infections in early July at the peak of the wave caused by the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the virus.
Professor Tim Spector, co-founder of the Covid ZOE app, told The Independent the UK was already at the start of the next wave of coronavirus.
“It looks like we’re in the start of the next wave and this time it’s affected older people slightly earlier than the last wave,” Prof Spector said.

Telegraph
Health chiefs have warned of a Covid and flu “twindemic” this winter as they launched a renewed vaccination drive.
Around 33 million people in England will be eligible for a free flu vaccination this year, while 26 million are also eligible for an autumn Covid-19 booster.
Officials at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) warned there will be lower levels of natural immunity to flu this year after the past few winters saw the public socialising less during restrictions.
The UKHSA warned of a possible “difficult winter” ahead as respiratory viruses, including flu and Covid, circulate widely as the public return to pre-pandemic levels of mixing.
One expert said they were more worried about flu than they had been for several years because of the reduction in population immunity.
There are also concerns patients may have vaccine fatigue and may choose to have one vaccine but not the other.

Climate protests

Guardian
Thousands of supporters of Just Stop Oil have blocked four bridges across the Thames.
Protesters blocked Waterloo Bridge, Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge with sit-down protests after marching from 25 points around the centre of London.
Just Stop Oil’s activists said protesters would converge on Westminster, where a crowd led by a samba band had already gathered in Parliament Square. Hundreds had earlier sat on Westminster Bridge, blocking traffic, and moved after police warned them they would be arrested if they stayed.
Among those sitting on Westminster Bridge was Esme Garlake, 26, from London. “I think we are at a real turning point now where the inequalities in our society are so obvious,” she said.
“Today is the day of the energy bills [price rise] coming out and so different groups and grassroots movements are starting to realise that we have to come together to demand social change and climate action.”
Garlake was sat next to her mother, Marilyn Garlake, 59, from Oxford, who said she saw synergies between activism for the climate and cost of living crises. “A tipping point is being reached now,” she said.

Evening Standard
Thousands of climate activists blocked four major London bridges on Saturday as protests broke out across the capital.
The Just Stop Oil group claimed to have “brought central London to a standstill” by blocking four key bridges to Westminster – Waterloo, Westminster, Lambeth and Vauxhall – demanding the government take “immediate” steps to “end the climate and cost of living crisis”.
On Westminster Bridge, activists including members of Extinction Rebellion, sat in the road and played instruments, blocking traffic to chant slogans about the climate crisis.
Several people kept up a steady drumbeat on instruments decorated with the Extinction Rebellion logo, watched by police.
XR and Cuban flags were flown and a sign reading “save my future” was seen propped up in a baby buggy.

House sales

Express
The rocketing cost of mortgage payments could result in the “mass forced sales” of homes, banks fear. High street lender HSBC issued the warning amid concern many homeowners could soon be paying £5,000 more a year to keep a roof over their heads.
Seven rate rises since last year have pushed up interest payments, with a rise to 5½ percent an “imminent possibility”, the lender said. Chris Hare, a senior economist at HSBC, said: “We are increasingly concerned about the possibility of spiralling mortgage costs leading to a wave of forced sales, triggering a broader, deeper, and more prolonged slump.”
His comments were backed by Josh Gerstler, of finance specialists The Orchard Practice.
He said: “We are already seeing a big shock for borrowers as they come to re-mortgage and realise their monthly payments are double or triple what they were.
“I can envisage some people looking to sell their homes as they struggle with the higher repayments.

Police

Telegraph
Suella Braverman has pledged to “hold the police to greater account”, as sources said the new Home Secretary believes that the concept of operational independence has been taken too far.
Mrs Braverman has signalled that she will “set direction” and “priorities” for forces as she draws up plans for a league table showing whether forces are meeting a new target to cut homicide, serious violence and neighbourhood crime by 20 per cent.
A Government source said that the Home Secretary also intended to make greater use of elected police and crime commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales, the vast majority of whom are Conservative, to ensure that forces are focusing on specific priorities set by the Government.
The source suggested that it was wrong for opponents to suggest that the operational independence of the police means “we can’t set direction or say what the priorities are or that these are our expectations. It just means we can’t say, ‘go and arrest this person'”.

Ukraine

Sun
NATO has issued a chilling nuclear war warning after Vladimir Putin’s deranged speech edged the world into the most dangerous moment since the Russian invasion.
Jens Stoltenberg, who heads the Western military alliance, said Putin’s shameless landgrab would not stop NATO providing its “unwavering support” to Ukraine.
The NATO chief said Putin’s latest move had brought the world one step closer to nuclear Armageddon.
“Putin has mobilised hundreds of thousands of more troops, engaged in irresponsible nuclear sabre rattling and now illegally annexed more Ukrainian territory,” Stoltenberg said in a press conference.
“Together, this represents the most serious escalation since the start of the war.
“NATO reaffirms its unwavering support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Star
Russia is becoming increasingly likely to use nuclear weapons as its army falters in Ukraine, a former RAF Airmarshall has predicted as he issued a terrifying warning to the West in an exclusive chat with the Daily Star.
Major counteroffensives have seen Ukraine take back 6,000 square kilometres of land, while Russia’s own spearheads have been blunted.
Putin’s forces have failed at multiple points across the campaign which has led to a huge conscription drive in an effort to save the ‘special military operation’.
In reality, though, the more Russia fails and Ukraine succeeds, the greater the chance of Putin turning to more drastic measures becomes, an expert has claimed.
Ukraine is being restrained by its allies who fear that the more Russia fails, the more a nuclear war becomes an option.

Telegraph
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader and key Kremlin ally, called on Vladimir Putin to use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine in the wake of another major and embarrassing military defeat.
His comments marked the first time a Russian official has openly and explicitly called for the use of atomic bombs in Ukraine.
It came after Moscow admitted it had withdrawn from the key eastern city of Lyman on Saturday in the face of “significant superiority in forces and means”, handing Kyiv a major battlefield victory.
Video posted online shows Ukrainian troops entering the city in the north of Donetsk, a region that President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed just the day before.
In the footage, two grinning Ukrainian soldiers are seen raising the country’s blue and yellow flag by the welcome sign at the entrance to the city.
“October 1. We’re unfurling our state flag and establishing it on our land. Lyman will be Ukraine,” one of the soldiers said, standing on the bonnet of a military vehicle.

Express
Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s region of Chechnya, called on Vladimir Putin to use “drastic measures” and called for nuclear weapons to be used in Ukraine after military defeat.
On Saturday, a Russian official openly called for the use of nuclear weaponry to be used during the war in Ukraine. Mr Kadyrov wrote on Telegram: “In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, right up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons”.
Mr Kadyrov’s commentary comes after Russia faced defeat and admitted in a statement that Russian troops were forced to withdraw from Lyman, a city in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

Evening Standard
Russian forces are running low on long-range air defence missiles after its troops killed 25 residents in a strike in Zaporizhzhia, the Ministry of Defence has said.
The strikes were carried out as Vladimir Putin staged the biggest land grab since World War Two on Friday, annexing 15 per cent of Ukraine.
Mr Putin declared a vast chunk of Ukraine as parts of Russian as he held a signing ceremony with Moscow-appointed leaders of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Prior to the ceremony, a missile strike in Zaporizhzhia killed 25 civilians and wounded 50 waiting at a bus stop checkpoint.
In its latest intelligence update, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said that Russia is now running low on certain types of munitions.

Sun
VLADIMIR Putin’s humiliated troops have fled a major battleground in Ukraine as the tyrant’s Chechen warlord said Russia should unleash nukes to retaliate.
After being encircled by fierce Ukrainian forces, Russia pulled its struggling soldiers out of the eastern city of Lyman in a huge embarrassment for Moscow.
Russia admitted its troops had abandoned their bastion of Lyman to avoid being encircled by Ukraine’s army.
Ukraine also claimed that Russian forces have withdrawn after an assault near Bakhmut and Saitseve in Donetsk and are now forcibly mobilising residents in Melitopol and Berdyansk.
“Allied forces were withdrawn from the settlement of… Lyman to more advantageous lines because of the creation of the threat of encirclement,” Russia’s Ministry of Defence said.
After the major new defeat, Ramzan Kadyrov, head of Russia’s Chechen region, said Moscow should now consider using a low-yield nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

WFH

Telegraph
Working from home leaves four in five bosses worried their employees are not being productive, a new study has found.
A survey of more than 20,000 staff across 11 countries from Microsoft found that while 87 per cent of employees felt they worked as efficiently, or even more efficiently, from home – 80 per cent of managers disagreed.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, told the BBC that workplaces are unlikely to ever return to pre-pandemic scenarios.
And Ryan Roslansky, the boss of Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, said that of the 15million job listings typically on LinkedIn, only around 2 per cent of those involved remote working prior to March 2020.

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