Banks warned over Saudi Aramco by environmental groups

Eight green groups send letter to express concern over planned market float

Environmental groups have warned the banks linked to Saudi Aramco’s planned market float that they risk financing the destruction of the planet by supporting the public listing of the world’s biggest oil producer.

The eight green groups, including Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth, warned that the world’s largest IPO would be “the biggest single infusion of capital into the fossil fuel industry” since global governments signed the Paris climate accord in 2015.

Patrick Day, Boxer Who Suffered Brain Injury in Bout, Dies at 27, Promoter Says

'A body drifted past the window': surviving the Ladbroke Grove train crash

On 5 October 1999, two trains collided at speed in west London, killing both drivers and 29 passengers. Barrister Greg Treverton-Jones, who survived the crash and worked on the harrowing inquiry, pieced together what went wrong

• Warning: this article contains graphic descriptions of injury and trauma

There was no warning and no screech of brakes – just a huge bang, and then we were crashing. I was sitting with my back to the direction of travel, towards Paddington, and felt the impact through my seat, as well as hearing it. For a moment or two, it seemed that we might be all right, because the train continued on its way. But then we derailed, and the wheels started to plough over the sleepers and through the ballast beside the tracks. I became aware of a bright yellow light over my right shoulder, and realised that it was a fireball. It moved along the outside of the carriage from front to rear, and then was gone. The carriage tilted to its right and, out of the window to my left, which was now below me, I could see one or two small fires. A body drifted slowly past that same window. It was that of a middle-aged male. The body was intact, and the man’s eyes were closed. I was struck by the peaceful look on his face as he rolled slowly below us. I remember hoping that he was not hurt, and wondering where on Earth he had come from.

Back then, in 1999, by a strange coincidence, I was acting as junior counsel for Great Western Trains Ltd at the public inquiry into the Southall rail crash, which had taken place two years earlier, in September 1997, and killed seven people. Many weeks earlier, I had been chatting to Richard George, managing director of Great Western Trains Ltd, about his experience as a passenger in the Southall crash. He had demonstrated to me how he had got out of his seat and crouched in the aisle as the train had slowed.

Footage shows world's fastest ants at top speed – video

New video footage reveals the world's fastest ants galloping across the scorching sand of the Sahara at speeds approaching one metre per second, which is the equivalent of a house cat tearing about at 120mph.

Researchers have found that at full pelt the Saharan silver ants can travel 108 times their body length per second in gallops that brought all six legs off the ground at once

• Fastest ants in world found in northern Sahara, researchers say
  

'Youthquake': The young New Zealanders voted into office – in between McDonald's shifts

The number of elected officials under 30 doubled in city and district elections. Here a selection of them speak about their priorities

They took gap years to stay at home and run for office. They list as their political heroes progressive leaders such as Jacinda Ardern and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And they plan to juggle their new roles as elected officials with university exams and shifts at McDonald’s.

The record number of young New Zealanders, some still in their teens, who surged to victory in the country’s local government elections on Saturday – in what was dubbed a “youthquake” by commentators – were not lured by dreams of high-profile posts in national politics.

Leading car in World Solar Challenge bursts into flames

NunaX car of Dutch team catches fire 250km before finish of 3,000km Darwin to Adelaide race

The leading car in the World Solar Challenge has caught fire and withdrawn from the race a little more than 250km from the Adelaide finish.

The NunaX car of Dutch team Vattenfall caught fire just before Mambray Creek on Thursday.

Empty Garages: The Answer to California’s Housing Shortage?

Inside the Derailed White House Meeting

Thirty years after devastating quake, is San Francisco ready for the next?

The 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake killed 63 in 1989. Decades later, the Bay Area is still plagued by structural threats and flammable fuels

On the afternoon of 17 October 1989, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay Area, killing 63 people and causing $13bn in damages as it toppled a chunk of the Bay Bridge, colapsed a section of freeway in Oakland, and crumbled thousands of buildings from San Francisco to Santa Cruz.

Thirty years later, California will launch an earthquake early warning app, the first to cover the whole state, developed by UC Berkeley and the California Office of Emergency Services. The decades since the Loma Prieta quake have been remarkably quiet – yet it’s not a matter of if, but when, the next large earthquake will rattle the Bay Area, and the consequences will undoubtedly be severe.

Bus Near Saudi Holy City of Mecca Crashes, Killing 35 People

John Lithgow: Trump Is a Bad President. He’s an Even Worse Entertainer.

Police arrest hundreds over international child sexual abuse website

South Korean-based site accepted digital currency for access to videos, with victims rescued in US, UK and Spain

Hundreds of people have been arrested in a worldwide operation over a South Korea-based dark web child sexual abuse site that sold videos for digital cash.

Officials from the United States, Britain and South Korea described the network as one of the largest operations they had encountered to date.

'A very serious meltdown': top Democrats react to Trump meeting – video

Nancy Pelosi said senior lawmakers witnessed Trump having a 'meltdown' after nearly two-thirds of the House GOP caucus voted to condemn his decision to withdraw US troops from northern Syria. Leaving a White House meeting on the situation in Syria, Senator Chuck Schumer said that Trump was disrespectful to Pelosi, calling her a 'third-rate politician', and alleged Trump had no plan on how to contain Isis now

What Are the Benefits of CBD?

Democrats, Dream Big but Tell the Whole Truth

Drug Giants Close In on a $50 Billion Settlement of Opioid Cases

'Profoundly wrong': Wellington's new mayor denies being Peter Jackson 'puppet'

Andy Foster says financial backing from Lord of the Rings director was not reason for his victory in New Zealand capital

Wellington’s new mayor, Andy Foster, has hit back at suggestions he is a “puppet” of Sir Peter Jackson, whilst still refusing to reveal how much the Lord of the Rings director and wife Fran Walsh donated to his campaign.

Andy Foster won local elections in New Zealand’s capital city over the weekend, ousting one-term incumbent Justin Lester.

Two-Person Race? Moderates, and Bernie Sanders, Say Not So Fast

Saudi bus crash kills 35 foreign tourists near holy city of Medina

Arab and Asian visitors were on a bus when it collided with another heavy vehicle

Thirty-five foreign tourists were killed and four others injured when a bus collided with another heavy vehicle near the Muslim holy city of Medina, Saudi state media said on Thursday.

The accident on Wednesday involved a collision between “a private chartered bus ... with a heavy vehicle (loader)“ near the western Saudi Arabian city, a spokesman for Medina police said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Gunman Is Arrested in Brownsville Mass Shooting, Police Say

For Yankees, Rainout Complicates the A.L.C.S. Pitching Plan

‘I Don’t Need Lessons From You on Courage’: Pete Buttigieg Makes His Case

EU leaders gather for summit as Boris Johnson scrambles to get backing for Brexit deal – Politics live

Prime minister is racing to secure backing from Democratic Unionist party for deal, which EU said they could approve today

• Full story: Johnson seeks DUP backing in race against time

6.03am BST

Brexit first on agenda which suggests EU council reckons there is deal to be done... might yet depend on the mood the DUP wakes up in or what assurances they got from No 10 last night or in the next few hours https://t.co/G7r5PpGK7r

5.47am BST

A photograph of Boris Johnson walking behind a metal fence, which gives the unfortunate impression that the prime minster was behind bars, provided a visual metaphor too good for most publications to pass up and it is the lead image on most of the front pages.

The front page of tomorrow’s Daily Telegraph: ‘Brexit is like the Shawshank Redemption … but now we can see the light’ #TomorrowsPaperToday pic.twitter.com/TiLav6n4nJ

Tomorrow's front page: Brexit on a knife-edge #tomorrowspaperstoday https://t.co/vQa6epnG11 pic.twitter.com/lwhGTkjz8C

MAIL UPDATED: In sight of the Summit #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/4vokpDO1VZ

FT: Hargreaves Lansdown under fire as Woodford collapse traps clients #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/g1BLHRZUS3

Guardian front page, Thursday 17 October 2019: Johnson in last-minute scramble for DUP backing pic.twitter.com/ePEaDPnZlA

EXPRESS: Against all odds #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/3S69r2sXWo

TGE TIMES: Brexit deal on knife edge as DUP blocks Johnson / Culture Secretary opens door to making BBC subscription service #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/xlxf8Pt242

The 'blob': zoo showcases slime mold with 720 sexes that can heal itself in minutes

The unusual organism has no mouth but can detect and digest food, and no brain yet can learn

A Paris zoo has showcased a slime mold, dubbed the “blob”, a yellowish, unicellular, small living being which looks like a fungus but acts like an animal.

This newest exhibit of the Paris Zoological Park, which goes on display to the public on Saturday and is widely used in scientific experiments, has no mouth, no stomach, no eyes, yet it can detect food and digest it.

G.M. and U.A.W. Reach Deal That Could End Strike

Trump Lashes Out on Syria as Republicans Rebuke Him in House Vote

The Way Forward in Syria

Matthew Shepard’s Parents Assail Trump Administration on Transgender Rights

Peter Navarro Invented an Expert for His Books, Based on Himself

Morrison accuses Albanese of 'throwing tantrums' – politics live

In Question Time, the prime minister says opposition are addicted to panic and crisis. All the day’s events, live

6.25am BST

On the legislated voice issue, Ken Wyatt says he is pushing ahead:

Well, we’ve got a timetable I’m proposing to take to the PM. Once that’s been agreed to in the process that he and I will undertake, and my cabinet colleagues and certainly members of parliament, then we will announce that and we will clearly lay out the process and the structures that are within that.

I’m optimistic.

6.18am BST

Patricia Karvelas: Many Indigenous people are opposed to this idea of legislating the voice. Have you convinced them?

Ken Wyatt:

No. I haven’t. But we will start a process. I’ve been talking to a lot of people as I’ve moved across the nation. Issues like sovereignty when up. Communities say, “Who will listen to our voice? We want local issues and access to health, better education.” I think Linda Burney discovered that when she travelled from Port Hedland to Uluru because I saw her and she made the very pertinent point - they were concerned about local matters they needed resolving.

We will work through those over the next 12 months.

There will be recognition.

We’ll need to be worked through with our people. And has to be acceptable within a legal framework. What I don’t want is a section 44 issue being created. We have to be pragmatic and have many non-indigenous Australians who are supportive but are saying, “I’m concerned until you tell us what the sets of words are because I’m not going to commit to something that creates a division between a nation that is becoming more unified.” The number of non-indigenous people who have said, “We will stand with Indigenous Australians. We want to see them recognised but get the words right.”

In Democratic Fund-Raising, Joe Biden Falls Far Behind

Trump’s Impeachment Blockade Crumbles as Witnesses Agree to Talk

Elaine Chao, Mitch McConnell and Questions of Conflict

Trump’s bizarre, threatening letter to Erdoğan: ‘Don’t be a fool’

President vows to destroy Turkish economy if Syria invasion is not resolved humanely, but brash language and diplomatic missteps draw confusion

Donald Trump warned his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “don’t be a fool” and said history risked branding him a “devil” in an extraordinary letter sent the day Turkey launched its incursion into north-eastern Syria.

The letter, first obtained by a Fox Business reporter, was shorn of diplomatic niceties and began with an outright threat.

Adam Schiff Is the Congressman Trump Wants You to Hate

'Think of your family': China threatens European citizens over Xinjiang protests

Uighurs living in Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and France have complained of intimidation by Beijing

Two days after Abdujelil Emet sat in the public gallery of Germany’s parliament during a hearing on human rights, he received a phone call from his sister for the first time in three years. But the call from Xinjiang, in western China, was anything but a joyous family chat. It was made at the direction of Chinese security officers, part of a campaign by Beijing to silence criticism of policies that have seen more than a million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities detained in internment camps.

Emet’s sister began by praising the Communist party and making claims of a much improved life under its guidance before delivering a shock: his brother had died a year earlier. But Emet, 54, was suspicious from the start; he had never given his family his phone number. Amid the heartbreaking news and sloganeering, he could hear a flurry of whispers in the background, and he demanded to speak to the unknown voice. Moments later the phone was handed to a Chinese official who refused to identify himself.

Chicago Teachers Announce Strike in Nation’s Third-Largest District

Syria, White House, Opioids: Your Wednesday Evening Briefing