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No 10 leaves option open to impose Chinese EV tariffs if UK joins EU scheme

Beijing warns against ‘discriminatory’ step after France drops opposition to British role in Made in Europe package

No 10 has left the door open to imposing tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles as part of the Made in Europe package, prompting a warning from Beijing that such a move would be “discriminatory”.

Downing Street said on Friday that it would “welcome the objective to have the UK included in the Industrial Accelerator Act” after France dropped its opposition to Britain joining the scheme.

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© Photograph: Nick Carey/Reuters

© Photograph: Nick Carey/Reuters

© Photograph: Nick Carey/Reuters

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No 10 leaves option open to impose Chinese EV tariffs if UK joins EU scheme

Beijing warns against ‘discriminatory’ step after France drops opposition to British role in Made in Europe package

No 10 has left the door open to imposing tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles as part of the Made in Europe package, prompting a warning from Beijing that such a move would be “discriminatory”.

Downing Street said on Friday that it would “welcome the objective to have the UK included in the Industrial Accelerator Act” after France dropped its opposition to Britain joining the scheme.

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© Photograph: Nick Carey/Reuters

© Photograph: Nick Carey/Reuters

© Photograph: Nick Carey/Reuters

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British students, like their French peers, have been known to challenge authority | Letters

Pete Crockett says the history of British education is not simply one of children dutifully accepting adult instruction, while Simon Dawson says Kitty Sayers misses the mark when describing English attitudes. Plus a letter from Kevin Donnelly

Reading Kitty Sayers’ interesting article, I was reminded of the rich, and perhaps too easily forgotten, history of direct action by British schoolchildren (Angry French students take to the streets. British students don’t – and I think I know why, 10 October). Far from being historically meek or unquestioningly compliant, they have demonstrated a remarkable capacity for challenging authority.

At Marlborough college, troops were once summoned to dislodge rebellious pupils occupying an island in the school grounds. In the late 1700s, Winchester college experienced several rebellions.

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© Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Alamy

© Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Alamy

© Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Alamy

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Norwegian teenage hitman hired for UK murder by Iran-backed crime gang jailed for 20 years

Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, was arrested in Huddersfield with two guns and live ammunition

A teenage hitman who travelled from Norway to the UK with the intention of carrying out a murder on behalf of an Iran-backed international crime gang has been jailed for 20 years.

Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, a talented footballer, had agreed to shoot an unknown target in return for €25,000 (£21,500).

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© Photograph: Metropolitan Police/Reuters

© Photograph: Metropolitan Police/Reuters

© Photograph: Metropolitan Police/Reuters

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British food and drink exports to EU collapse by more than a third since Brexit

NFU analysis of official data shows falls in exports to UK’s largest trading partner since 2019 include 70% for sugar and 74% for egg products

Exports of British food and drink to the EU have collapsed by more than a third since Brexit with eggs, chicken and potato producers badly hit, new figures show.

Analysis by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) of HMRC data shows a sharp fall in exports in the year to July compared with the same period in 2019, with sugar dropping the most, down 70%.

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© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

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British man fined €3,000 for causing two-year-old son’s death in Cyprus

Joshua Foster pleaded guilty over death of toddler who fell from fourth-floor window of hotel during family holiday

A British man has been fined €3,000 (£2,500) after his two-year-old son fell 10 metres (33ft) to his death from the fourth-floor window of a hotel in Cyprus.

Joshua Foster thought the window was closed when he approached it with the boy to show him the view of a waterpark and “lost control” of him, the court previously heard.

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© Photograph: James Manning/PA

© Photograph: James Manning/PA

© Photograph: James Manning/PA

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UK could quickly re-enter EU with ‘Switzerland plus’ deal, senior MEP says

Bernd Lange, who was involved in Brexit talks, says deal could be negotiated within months of any decision to deepen ties

The UK could re-enter the EU in a “Switzerland plus” package that could be negotiated within months of any decision to deepen ties with the bloc, the head of a European parliament committee has said.

Bernd Lange, who was heavily involved in Brexit negotiations, said: “I would love to see the UK back.” He said the EU missed the UK in decision-making because of its strong history of promoting open markets and democracy.

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© Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

© Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

© Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

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Repairing Brexit economic damage should be Burnham’s top priority, business chief says

Shevaun Haviland argues PM is right to revisit Labour’s EU red lines as current trading relationship is bad for business

Repairing the economic damage of Brexit should be the top priority for Andy Burnham as he reconsiders Labour’s red lines on EU membership, the head of one of Britain’s leading business groups has said.

Shevaun Haviland, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said she welcomed the prime minister reopening the Brexit battle lines despite the uncertainty it could create, arguing that the UK’s current trading relationship with the EU was bad for business.

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© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

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Wes Streeting urges US to back Ukraine on Washington visit after Starlink row

UK defence secretary says he has been ‘reassured directly’ counterpart Pete Hegseth that Starlink system has been restored as he seeks to cool tensions

Wes Streeting urged the US to stand by Ukraine on his visit to the American capital and sought to cool tensions between the two countries in the wake of the Starlink row that is threatening to set back Kyiv’s war effort.

The British defence secretary, giving a speech before a meeting with his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, argued that supporting Ukraine was in the long-term interests of Washington, and a business opportunity.

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© Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

© Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

© Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

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Closer EU trade ties greater prize for UK than making separate deals, minister says

Exclusive: Douglas Alexander, on trade delegation to India, talks up economic benefits of joint trading arrangements with Europe

Britain will benefit from much closer trading relations with the EU even if that means giving up its ability to negotiate free trade agreements, the Scotland secretary has said.

Douglas Alexander helped negotiate deals with India and the US when he was a trade minister under Keir Starmer.

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© Photograph: X/Douglas Alexander

© Photograph: X/Douglas Alexander

© Photograph: X/Douglas Alexander

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Excluding UK from ‘Made in Europe’ law will hurt entire EU car industry, Mercedes boss warns

Ola Källenius says it will ‘weaken the industry on both sides’ ahead of act intended to counter non-EU competition

Locking the UK out of the EU’s flagship industrial “Made in Europe” legislation would amount to a “deliberate choice” by EU leaders to “hurt” the car industry across the bloc, the head of Mercedes-Benz has said.

Speaking in his capacity as president of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), Ola Källenius said such a move would “weaken the industry on both sides”.

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© Photograph: Christoph Steitz/Reuters

© Photograph: Christoph Steitz/Reuters

© Photograph: Christoph Steitz/Reuters

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How Europe’s most wanted cocaine trafficker turned Sierra Leone into the world’s first true narco state

Drawing on dozens of interviews with intelligence and police officers across two continents, a Guardian investigation reveals the murderous cost of our insatiable appetite for cocaine

Read more: Latin American organised crime ‘may operate in 16 European countries’
Explainer:
What is state capture and why does it matter?

As abductions go, few have been more brazen. Alan Jalloh was with two friends outside Goodies supermarket, frantic as usual with late afternoon shoppers. Rush hour in downtown Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, was under way with familiar gusto.

A black Toyota Rav4 forced its way through the Peninsula highway traffic. Witnesses describe burly white men leaping out, yanking on balaclavas. Jalloh, 40, seemed to freeze. As did his two friends, one a famous Freetown footballer. All three were dragged into the waiting SUV. None of them have been seen since.

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© Composite: Guardian Design

© Composite: Guardian Design

© Composite: Guardian Design

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Burnham to host Zelenskyy at No 10 in show of ‘rock-solid’ support

Prime minister reiterates UK backing after the Ukrainian president’s latest round of difficulties with Donald Trump

Andy Burnham will host Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Downing Street on Wednesday as the UK seeks to further underline its support for the Ukrainian president, in contrast to his difficulties with Donald Trump.

The UK prime minister said his message to Zelenskyy and his country would be: “We are with you for as long as it takes.”

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© Photograph: Future Publishing/Getty Images

© Photograph: Future Publishing/Getty Images

© Photograph: Future Publishing/Getty Images

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Far-right and Iran add to mix of terror threats UK faces – not to mention AI

Annual update from MI5 chief highlighted a complex cocktail that could have real-life consequences for Britain

MI5’s annual threat update covers so much ground it is easy to feel anxious. The terror threat has become more diverse, with far-right anti-migrant threats on the rise; while Iran has now firmly emerged alongside Russia as a country seeking to undertake violent and deadly plots in the UK.

“There is no law of physics dictating that rising state threats will be accompanied by diminishing terrorist threats,” MI5’s director general, Ken McCallum, said, although one of his core messages was that people and the country at large needed to focus on being more resilient. “In this new world, we should expect to be tested.”

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© Photograph: Toby Shepheard/Reuters

© Photograph: Toby Shepheard/Reuters

© Photograph: Toby Shepheard/Reuters

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The Guardian view on Burnham’s Brexit reset: overdue, but proceed with care | Editorial

The prime minister is correct to judge the time is right to push for closer links with the EU. The political risk is far outweighed by the potential rewards

The German philosopher GWF Hegel famously evoked the owl of Minerva when discussing the historical wisdom that comes through hindsight. This autumn, she has flown tirelessly over the landscape of British politics. Party conference season was dominated by conflicting Labour and Conservative accounts of the 1970s and 80s. And a decade after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, Andy Burnham this week abandoned all equivocation over the damage – economic but also strategic – that resulted from that decision.

Having declared that it is time to “face up to the reality that Brexit has done more harm than good”, Mr Burnham told the House of Commons on Monday that it would be a “dereliction of duty” not to explore all options for closer relations with Brussels. Though he confirmed that in this parliament he will honour the red lines in Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour manifesto, all bets will subsequently be off.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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© Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images

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Britons travelling to EU countries told not to apply for delayed Etias visa waiver

Abta advice comes as more than more than 150 websites offer service of securing entry to Schengen zone

Britons travelling to EU countries have been told not to apply for an Etias visa waiver, with more than 150 websites touting the service despite its introduction being delayed.

Non-EU citizens, including UK travellers and those from other visa-exempt countries including the US, Australia and Canada, will soon need to pay €20 (£17) for an electronic waiver to enter the Schengen zone under the European travel information and authorisation system (Etias).

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© Photograph: Hugh Williamson/Alamy

© Photograph: Hugh Williamson/Alamy

© Photograph: Hugh Williamson/Alamy

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Russia did try to interfere in Brexit referendum, head of MI5 confirms

Ken McCallum says Kremlin attempted to influence vote through social media and TV reports but had little impact

Russia did try to interfere in the Brexit referendum through social media and television reports, the head of MI5 said on Tuesday, but he added that did not mean the Kremlin had any impact on the result.

Ken McCallum endorsed comments by Andy Burnham, who raised the issue over the past two days, though he said continuing to debate it risked giving the Kremlin a needless propaganda victory.

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© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Reuters

© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Reuters

© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Reuters

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Fewer Britons plan to ringfence money for holidays abroad next year, says travel industry

Spain remains most popular destination as Britons book later in hope of better deals, Abta report finds

The UK’s cost of living squeeze means fewer people plan to ringfence money for holidays abroad next year, the travel industry has warned.

Despite war, wildfires and EES border checks, the numbers of Britons taking holidays climbed back to pre-pandemic levels this year – but rising costs may mean the numbers have peaked, according to an annual travel industry report on Tuesday.

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© Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

© Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

© Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

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MI5 chief Ken McCallum confirms Russia did interfere in Brexit referendum but says it had little impact – as it happened

He argued there was no evidence to suggest the result of the Brexit vote had been swayed as a result of the effort

Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, has said he does not agree with his colleague Suella Braverman’s assertion that black people cannot be English.

Asked about her views in an interview on Sky News, Yusuf said:

In my view Ashley Cole is the best English fullback in history, and I won’t take any other position. So in my view, Ashley Cole is English. I think the argument that he’s not English doesn’t hold water with me.

Nasser Hussain, who I grew up watching when I went to the cricket, the idea that those people aren’t English is an alien concept to me.

I would respectfully disagree with people, who make the opposite argument.

To say I’m English is to take a ‘laissez-faire, anything-goes’ attitude to ethnicity, citizenship and identity. It also denies me my Asian heritage. The liberals (many of them in today’s Conservative party) take this cosmopolitan approach to Englishness. They’re terrified of being called racist so they say that anyone, as long as they’re born here, can be English.

I take the conservative approach. Englishness is an ethnicity. There have been English people for centuries and we need to recognise this more if we are to start taking a more muscular approach to citizenship and nationality. And no, it’s not racist to say this.

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© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Reuters

© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Reuters

© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Reuters

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