Ryanair bag drop closing 20 minutes earlier from 10 November

Singapore Airlines is investing over S$2 billion in new cabins across all four travel classes, with initial installations anticipated in the latter half of 2027. The initiative encompasses 72 aircraft, comprising both Airbus A350-900s undergoing retrofitting and Boeing 777-9 jets that have been ordered. Chief Commercial Officer Lee Lik Hsin said the airline will pay from its S$9.1 billion cash pile.

Skynet is the UK's secure military satellite network, and the Ministry of Defence is thought to have picked US firm Lockheed Martin over European rival Airbus to build its next two satellites. Airbus warns that 3,000 British jobs, mainly in Stevenage and Portsmouth, could be lost, while Lockheed says it would build a new factory in Tyneside.

Canva, the Australian design software firm, is cutting about 22% of its staff after experiencing its first decade-long period of decelerated growth. Chief executive Melanie Perkins announced it on 4 November, though some of the 1,271 affected staff will be moved or relocated instead. Leavers also get 12 months of health cover where offered, plus $10,000 grants to start businesses, with no equity taken.

Around 13% of individuals aged 16 to 24 in Britain, nearly one million, are not in employment, education, or training. On Thursday, Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, announced employers would be required to include salary details in job advertisements. The government believes this move will benefit women and those seeking their first jobs.

DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused rival to Google, is courting schools after Google said that switching off its other AI features would also cost them Google Search. Google announced the change on Tuesday; its head of education products stated that Gemini, its AI chatbot, and Search would be disabled by default for student accounts.

France's National Assembly rejected the revenue half of its 2027 budget 458 to 0, taking every amendment from three weeks of debate down with it. That wiped out a levy of €0.055 per gigabyte on content firms, which passed on 30 October with only 35 of 577 deputies voting.

Democratic socialist Nithya Raman has defeated incumbent Karen Bass to become Los Angeles mayor. Bass conceded after never previously losing a race. Raman, an Indian immigrant and city councillor, campaigned on homelessness, housing and resisting ICE. Bass faced fallout from the 2025 LA fires. America’s two largest cities now have democratic-socialist mayors, with New York’s Zohran Mamdani. The Super Bowl and 2028 Olympics loom.

Eva Geller, 90, a Holocaust survivor, has died in a Sydney hospital nearly a year after she was shot in the December 2025 Bondi Beach antisemitic massacre. Fifteen people were killed in the attack on a Jewish Hanukkah event. Rabbi Aron Moss said she stayed positive despite hospital stays, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offered condolences. NSW Police are working with the coroner on her death.

Peruvian wildlife officials seized more than 3,000 tarantulas hidden in dirty socks inside three suitcases at Lima’s Jorge Chávez airport. Two Germans and a Pole were bound for Germany when SERFOR spotted movement during a routine customs check. The specimens ranged from eggs to adults and were valued at about €500 each, or up to €1.5m in total. The three were detained on environmental crime allegations.

ClearSpace UK is building a spacecraft to grab two dead satellites and steer them back towards Earth, where they will burn up safely. It's the UK Space Agency's first national space mission, an experiment in clearing debris before it damages working satellites. Entries need a name of up to two words plus a short explanation, and the competition closes on 10 December 2026.

Glasgow City Council has identified 59 potential locations for the construction of as many as 12,173 residences, with development scheduled to occur from 2027 to 2032. Councillors passed the £674m plan as the city battles a housing emergency, with a record 4,890 households in temporary homeless housing in March. Among the 6,500 dwellings that have been confirmed, 74% are designated for social housing.

The NHS service is available 24 hours a day to individuals across all age groups, with its operations overseen by registered health and care professionals. Its coverage extends across Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Milton Keynes. Trained crisis responders can assess risk and point people to local services, and a web chat option translates messages into the sender's first language.

The Bank of England, the UK's central bank, says El Niño, a Pacific weather pattern, could add around 2 percentage points to food prices by 2028. The UK receives approximately 25% of its food imports from areas susceptible to this, and fresh produce will be the initial sector affected. The warning came on Thursday, when the bank raised interest rates from 3.75% to 4%.

Warming seas around the UK could destabilise marine food webs and threaten food security by 2050, a four-year Cefas-led study warns. Under a high-warming path, fish diversity may rise about 12% by mid-century while key plankton groups decline. Scientists said that imbalance could reshape ecosystems in unforeseen ways. UK waters are among the world's fastest-warming marine climate hotspots over 50 years.

Police and firefighters across the UK are preparing for Bonfire Night disorder, with mutual-aid public order units heading to Scottish cities including Glasgow. Forces have used dispersal orders after fireworks misuse in Birmingham and Salford. Fire chiefs warn attacks on crews are rising, while the Fire Brigades Union says services are stretched beyond safe limits. Firework control zones apply in parts of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Elon Musk's SpaceX shares fell more than 9% by Thursday lunchtime, and Tesla dropped more than 11%. Losses dragged the Nasdaq down over 5% at one point. Selling followed Democrat wins in states hosting many data centres, including Texas, amid talk of tougher checks on new sites and on artificial intelligence. Some technology bosses said they must explain the benefits of those centres more clearly.

Andy Burnham says he wants to reshape the Chagos deal after Washington objected. He told the Economist he will open fresh talks with the United States and study the Greenland arrangement for Diego Garcia. A treaty under Keir Starmer would give Mauritius sovereignty and lease the base for 99 years, paying £165 million for three years then £120 million yearly. Trump's opposition has stalled it.

Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill says there is still "no white smoke" after budget talks with Secretary of State Sir Chris Bryant at Hillsborough Castle. Bryant is understood to want Stormont to raise an extra £200 million a year in 2027-29 and tighten public-sector pay discipline. The Executive has no agreed budget seven months into the year, with health strikes looming over unpaid awards.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said his long-promised 10-year plan for Britain may not appear until December or January. He told The Economist there is still no firm landing date for the blueprint covering housing, transport and growth. Officials had billed it as this year's core policy statement after a low-key Budget. Burnham insisted the final document will be substantial, not a slim holding note.

Britain's top 100 companies also climbed 0.5% on Thursday to reach their highest level in nearly three months. Banking shares led the gains, with HSBC jumping 1.2% ahead of the first interest rate increase in three years. The central bank is expected to raise borrowing costs by a quarter-percentage point to tackle 3.5% inflation linked to the US and Israel's war on Iran.

An Italian chef was dismissed from a Brisbane restaurant after repeatedly refusing to make ham and pineapple pizza for guests, saying the topping insulted his culture. Davide Tamburella's refusal was one of several complaints raised by his bosses at La Costa, alongside concerns about his language and workplace frustration. Australia's Fair Work Commission threw out his unfair dismissal claim because he lodged it too late.

The Ukrainian president made an unexpected trip to Madrid on Thursday to address the Ibero-American Summit. He warned that Russian missile and drone strikes have damaged every single power plant in his country, leaving crews fighting to prevent total blackouts. He specifically requested transformers from nations including Brazil and Argentina, alongside electrical cables from Chile and generators from Spain.

The currency's upward shift follows a drop in the American dollar after Donald Trump lost the US midterm elections. Official Bank of England figures published on Thursday showed sterling climbing against other global currencies ahead of an expected interest rate hike. Analysts believe that Britain's improving trade relationship with the European Union has also made the country more attractive to international investors.

Adopt a Coastline, a group caring for Antigua's shoreline, told Charles and Camilla that 71 bags of rubbish had been collected from Fort James Beach in just two hours. The couple then took turns with litter pickers, and the Queen went barefoot on the sand. It was part of a nine-day Caribbean tour that ended with a Commonwealth leaders' banquet on Tuesday.

Donald Trump reportedly told aides that his deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller had pushed deportations too far after first lady Melania Trump complained that people she knew were being removed from the country, according to The Wall Street Journal. The claim follows Republicans' heavy midterm defeat, with many Hispanic voters turning away. The White House has been asked for comment on the newspaper's report.

John Swinney has said he does not back the UK government's plan to stop granting licences for new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. Speaking to MSPs, the First Minister argued fossil fuels will be needed for years and that drilling can be justified if its emissions are lower than imports. The Energy Independence Bill would not settle the disputed Rosebank field decision.

An archaeologist has proposed that Verica, the exiled British ruler who urged Emperor Claudius to invade in AD43, may have been a woman. Dr Miles Russell of Bournemouth University points to the Latin name ending, the neutral title Rex on coins and imagery of a naked woman on horseback. The idea is controversial, but would reshape how historians picture the politics of Iron Age Britain.

The British Social Attitudes survey, Britain's longest-running study of public opinion, asked 4,656 people over 16 about military service. Some 45% of those aged 55 and over rated serving in a crisis as highly important, roughly double the under-35s. Meanwhile a record 56% of all Britons now want more spent on defence, the first outright majority in the survey's four decades.

A 38-year-old man has been remanded in custody after suspected explosives were found near the Aberfan Memorial Garden days before a royal visit. Stefan Dale is charged with making an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or property. The find was made on 17 October, shortly before the King marked the disaster's 60th anniversary. He next appears at Cardiff Crown Court on 4 December.

Around 200,000 refugees who were promised they could apply to settle in the UK after five years now face a far longer and uncertain wait, campaigners say. The Refugee Council says a footnote in Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's new immigration plan moves them onto 30-month renewable permits for up to 30 years. The Home Office insists there has been no policy change since last year.

England's 39 police forces could be merged into as few as nine regional 'super forces' under an unpublished review by former Met chief Lord Hogan-Howe, the Guardian reports. Wales would get a single force, with a new National Police Service sitting above the regional forces. Some chief constables doubt the plan, asking whether bigger forces really perform better, while others fear ministers will delay it.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham says Vladimir Putin will not be welcome at the G20 summit the UK is hosting in Manchester in November 2027, citing sanctions on senior Russian figures. The stance contrasts sharply with Donald Trump, who has invited Putin to this year's gathering in Miami. Burnham told The Economist the Manchester meeting could also help to secure global safety rules for artificial intelligence.

Comedian and actor Russell Brand, 51, has been convicted of one rape and three sexual assaults after a four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court. Jurors cleared him of two further rape counts and one attempted indecent assault. The convictions relate to four of the six complainants. The judge warned a lengthy jail term was inevitable and remanded Brand in custody ahead of sentencing on Monday.

A fatal accident inquiry has ruled that the 2020 Carmont derailment near Stonehaven, which killed three people, might realistically have been prevented. The sheriff found contractor Carillion built a drainage system differently from its approved design, adding a bund that let the drain wash out in heavy rain and send debris onto the line. Network Rail failed to obtain the required construction and safety records.

Deaths linked to ketamine in England and Wales reached a record level last year, official figures show. The Office for National Statistics counted 115 deaths registered in 2025 where the drug was mentioned on the death certificate, almost twice the 60 recorded in 2024. The figure was 27 in 2020 and just seven in 2015, highlighting how quickly the problem has grown across both nations.

The Metropolitan Police has settled a claim from Tej Singh Bhandal, a 68-year-old pro-Palestine campaigner arrested at St Pancras station under terrorism powers. He was detained and handcuffed after declining to hand over his phone PIN when returning on Eurostar in June. Counter-terror police admitted the stop did not meet legal requirements, apologised to him and dropped the criminal investigation against him over the refusal.

Regulators have warned South West Water that its failure to cut leaks is putting customers' supplies at risk during a severe drought. Ofwat, the Environment Agency and Defra said leakage is 18.5% above forecast, with 113.5 million litres lost every day. The firm, which serves 1.8 million people, has been given six weeks to produce an action plan while Devon households face possible supply cuts.

Michel Barnier, the EU's former chief Brexit negotiator, says Britain could rejoin the bloc without being forced to adopt the euro. Speaking to Sky News, the former French prime minister said joining the single market was the one condition that could not be negotiated, meaning free movement of people would have to return. His comments follow Prime Minister Andy Burnham's call for closer European ties.

A second round of bomb threats has hit flights across Europe this week, with at least 14 aircraft affected on Thursday. A Ryanair service from Stansted to Sofia was diverted to Plovdiv, while an Aer Lingus jet from Dublin landed at a French air base. No explosives were found anywhere. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander called the threats malicious hoaxes but said they were taken seriously.

Cristiano Ronaldo has confirmed he is stepping down from playing international football, following a career with Portugal that broke numerous records. The 41-year-old shared the news on Thursday in an Instagram video, reading a letter to his supporters. He represented his country on 234 occasions, achieving a record 146 goals in international matches.

A £25,000 Welsh Government grant is paying for beekeeping training for 300 disabled people in Uganda and Ghana under the Wales and Africa scheme. The money goes to the charity Bees for Development, which runs the training classes. Reform UK attacked the spending as foreign aid, arguing the cash should instead go on cutting NHS waiting lists and supporting struggling local public services across Wales.

Vickrum Digwa, jailed for at least 21 years for stabbing student Henry Nowak, 18, in Southampton, is asking the Court of Appeal to shorten his term. The Attorney General argues the opposite, saying the sentence is too lenient. Henry's family called the appeal ludicrous. The case caused national outrage after police handcuffed Henry as he lay dying. A ruling could come as soon as today.

Under the Home Office's new "earned settlement" plan, ten years becomes the standard wait for indefinite leave to remain, the right to stay permanently. Those earning £50,271 can still settle after five years, and £125,141 earners after three, if they meet the pay level in most of the years beforehand. Anyone with a criminal conviction, unpaid government debt or a serious immigration breach faces refusal.

Cristiano Ronaldo stayed home while Al-Nassr beat Pakhtakor 6-2 in Uzbekistan on Monday in the AFC Champions League. Coach Ange Postecoglou omitted several players, explaining his decision by referring to the strain of games and the extent of journeys required. Ronaldo's hat-trick against Al-Kholood last Thursday took him to 985 career goals.

Reform UK has named Wing Commander Angus MacIntyre, 58, as its first armed forces spokesman after he left the RAF following a 40-year military career. He recently worked at Nato headquarters on UK support for Ukraine. The move is seen as Nigel Farage's attempt to answer critics who call him soft on Putin, while the party promises defence spending of 3% of GDP by 2030.

Burger King UK is offering a quarter of a million plant-based Royales to customers throughout November for World Vegan Month. To get a free burger, people need to purchase special packs of The Vegetarian Butcher items from major supermarkets. These offers must be redeemed by the end of December.

Bayern haven't disclosed the money, so the figure isn't confirmed, though German media reported that the extension is the most lucrative contract in the club's history. Kane, England's captain, had been in the last year of his deal and was keen to stay, saying his family are very happy in Munich. The new contract also fends off interest from Barcelona and clubs in Saudi Arabia.

Weeks of student-led unrest have spread to unions, and the domestic intelligence service expects 500,000 to 700,000 people to march outside Paris, with up to 80,000 in the capital. Unions including the left-wing CGT have called strikes on Thursday across schools, rail, hospitals and post, demanding a higher minimum wage and across-the-board pay rises.

Angus MacIntyre, Reform's new armed forces spokesman and a former RAF Wing Commander, says the party would also pardon veterans convicted for following orders. Prosecuting a soldier would need the Defence Secretary's explicit consent. Veterans' campaigner Paul Young said he couldn't endorse the wording, because the Defence Secretary is a politician, and he wants a Supreme Court judge to decide instead.

Édouard Philippe, Macron's former prime minister, is a candidate in next year's French presidential election. He stated in Zuydcoote, near Dunkirk, that he would terminate the Touquet treaty if Britain does not cover the entire expense of policing the Channel. Philippe called it 'absurd' that Britain gives asylum or residency to almost two-thirds of small-boat migrants.

The Department for Transport has opened a consultation on national standards for shared ebikes such as Lime, Forest and Voi. Currently, local authorities and businesses operate under varying regulations, prompting grievances from individuals who use wheelchairs, pushchairs, or have impaired sight. Plans also cover fleet sizes, insurance so hit riders' victims can claim compensation, and powers for councils over hire fees.

Russia carried out its biggest assault on Ukraine's energy grid this year on 3 November, according to three sources familiar with the situation, one of whom is a government advisor, who spoke to the Kyiv Independent. Without electricity, Kyiv's centralised system couldn't pump water, and outages hit most districts. Water company Kyivvodakanal had stabilised supply by the afternoon of 4 November.

Surveys have uncovered hundreds more asbestos items inside Parliament, taking the known total above 1,650, up 500 since 2021, despite 700 being removed. The finding piles pressure on MPs to approve a long-delayed refurbishment that could cost up to £40bn and take 61 years. A Commons committee warns each year of delay adds £420m and risks a devastating fire. Officials say most is low risk.

Sequoia Capital, the venture firm famed for early bets on Apple and Google, is closing its London office six years after opening it, with several staff leaving. In a memo posted on X, the firm said it no longer needs a local presence and will back European founders from California. It also revealed roughly $10bn in new funds and scrapped its accelerator and scout programmes.

Prince Harry and Meghan will speak at the European Parliament in Brussels next Tuesday, opening the Lost Screen Memorial, which remembers children who died after harm on social media. It will be their first appearance since allegations about Meghan's father Thomas Markle were reported to police. They will deliver a joint address of up to 20 minutes on children's online safety, then join a panel.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said it is "not normal" that the NHS depends so heavily on overseas nurses, during a call-in on LBC with Iain Dale. She argued that if the health service cannot survive without immigration, its model needs to change, and called for more homegrown nurses who are paid better. She also suggested nurses should be able to qualify without a degree.

George Simm, a former SAS commander who served in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 80s, insists his unit never set out to kill IRA members rather than arrest them. Speaking publicly after nearly 50 years, the 72-year-old described the 1988 Drumnakilly ambush near Omagh, where three IRA men died, and accused ministers of abandoning veterans through Labour's Troubles legacy bill, now going through Westminster.

Pope Leo XIV received Bob Dylan at the Apostolic Palace on Wednesday, during the Rome leg of the singer's Rough and Rowdy Ways tour. The two Midwest-born Americans exchanged gifts, with Leo handing over a rosary and Dylan, 85, offering his memoir Chronicles: Volume One. The Pope has previously quoted from an unreleased Dylan anti-nuclear song. Dylan performs at Rome's Palazzo dello Sport on Thursday.

Australian racing driver Alan Jones, who won the 1980 Formula One world title with Williams, has died aged 80 after a short illness, his family announced on Thursday. He took 12 grand prix victories, including the 1980 British Grand Prix, and remains the last Australian to be crowned champion. He later became a forthright motorsport TV commentator. He had celebrated his 80th birthday on Monday.