What if someone told you the truth about the economy? For years, UK governments have tried spending more, spending less, cutting red tape, leaving the EU, levelling up, and they have still failed to increase growth per person. So what’s the lesson from the great British fairytale? On the latest episode, the rebel economists Karel Williams and Sukhdev Johal explain to Aditya Chakrabortty why they believe praying for growth is a fool’s dream – and why it won’t improve your life

Aditya’s suggested reading list for Karel Williams and Sukhdev Johal:

As we say in the podcast, I’ve championed the work of Karel and Sukhdev and their colleagues in the Guardian for many years, and some of my columns are a good introduction to their approach.

• In our conversation we look at what life after growth looks like for towns and suburbs, and what it should look like. This report from South Wales in 2016 examines the present-day reality.

• For a broader analysis of how the UK has become highly unequal and increasingly stagnant, try this.

• As part of the Foundational Economy collective, Karel and Sukhdev put a lot of their analysis into freely available working papers. That circumvents the leisureliness and expense of academic publishing and gets their arguments in front of a wider public. A good example is this one on the cost of living crisis.

• More recently, they’ve focused on the broken water system of England and Wales in a book called Murky Water: Challenging an Unsustainable System.

Support the Guardian ► https://support.theguardian.com

The Guardian on YouTube: The Guardian ► www.youtube.com/@theguardian

Guardian News ► www.youtube.com/@guardiannews

Today in Focus ► www.youtube.com/@todayinfocuspodcast

Stateside ► www.youtube.com/@statesidepodcast

Politics Weekly ► https://www.youtube.com/@politicsweekly

Science Weekly ► https://www.youtube.com/@scienceweeklypod

Football Weekly ► https://www.youtube.com/@FootballWeeklyPodcast

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Guardian

© Photograph: Guardian

© Photograph: Guardian

Editor, agony uncle, crossword compiler – he even interviews himself. Our sketchwriter finds there’s no end to Farage’s talents

Welcome to your new super, soaraway Reformer. The paper that aims to take you back to the 1950s with all the stories that the mainstream media don’t want you to read. Free to all patriots. And those who happen to have found a copy on the floor of the bus.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Amid the chaos, havoc and war caused by a capricious and amoral US president, countries are waking up to the dangers of being excluded and abused by America

Never has there been a time when the world has been more interconnected than now. What happens in the secretive inner councils in Tehran, the mountains of south-west Yemen, the steppe of the Donbas, the still bloody wasteland that is Gaza and even the elegant boulevards of Paris and Milan have a common thread.

One cannot understand one set of conflicts without weaving them into another, and it is this very interdependence that is making each problem so contagious, layered and difficult to resolve, leaving the world to live as if trapped inside a pressure cooker on the brink of an explosion.

Continue reading...

© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

There is always debate about the concept’s necessity and efficacy. But with nativists in their pomp, it’s good to focus on who we are and why

• What forces shaped four generations of Black Britons? | The panel

Pity Black History Month UK, assailed on all sides. Those on the right seek to end the celebration on the basis that it amounts to special treatment for a group that doesn’t deserve it. History should be colour-blind: society should not differentiate, they say. We are not racist, we just want fairness. But often, they are – and they really don’t.

On the other side of the argument are the progressives, notably minority progressives, who say the idea of a month to consider Black history is demeaning because it should already have a year-round place in our teaching and consciousness. There is a further view that any beneficial effect the month once had has been diluted by unimaginative repetition and commercially motivated virtue signalling. Players taking the knee in the Premier League? Been there, done that: yawn!

Hugh Muir is executive editor, Opinion

Continue reading...

© Composite: Guardian Design; ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock; Manuel Harlan; Jeff Moore/PA; Laura McCluskey

© Composite: Guardian Design; ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock; Manuel Harlan; Jeff Moore/PA; Laura McCluskey

© Composite: Guardian Design; ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock; Manuel Harlan; Jeff Moore/PA; Laura McCluskey

For Black History Month, figures from the arts, culture and sport reveal the people and ideas that made them who they are today

• When you’re traduced, abused and gaslighted – believe me, Black History Month matters | Hugh Muir

Continue reading...

© Illustration: Guardian Design

© Illustration: Guardian Design

© Illustration: Guardian Design

Consultation follows growing calls from campaigners, vets and National Farmers’ Union for tighter regulation

As the nights draw in, the season of sparklers begins, with Diwali, Bonfire Night and New Year’s Eve among the occasions typically celebrated with fireworks. But if campaigners get their way, this could be the last blast for bangers in the back yard.

In January concerns about the noise and availability of fireworks were aired in a parliamentary debate, with two petitions clocking up more than 180,000 signatures each, while earlier this month the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade closed a consultation on proposals including making louder fireworks only available to professional users.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: David Tramontan/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: David Tramontan/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: David Tramontan/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Consultation follows growing calls from campaigners, vets and National Farmers’ Union for tighter regulation

As the nights draw in, the season of sparklers begins, with Diwali, Bonfire Night and New Year’s Eve among the occasions typically celebrated with fireworks. But if campaigners get their way, this could be the last blast for bangers in the back yard.

In January concerns about the noise and availability of fireworks were aired in a parliamentary debate, with two petitions clocking up more than 180,000 signatures each, while earlier this month the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade closed a consultation on proposals including making louder fireworks only available to professional users.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: David Tramontan/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: David Tramontan/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: David Tramontan/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Civil rights groups warn millions of Americans could get sidelined.

The prime minister will speak with King Charles and others at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda

• Get our daily political email, free app or daily news podcast

As “summit season” begins, reaffirming ties with fellow leaders on the world stage could be a circuit breaker for Anthony Albanese amid domestic and economic woes, analysts have said.

But a likely interest rate hike, triggered by higher-than-expected inflation, while the prime minister is overseas will make his job – and the treasurer’s – even harder.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The judge granted a temporary restraining order through Nov. 16

Order says local officials can’t be forced to separate or stop counting ballots that the government deems to be disputed

A federal judge has barred the justice department from threatening or coercing election workers to stop processing ballots.

The order issued late Friday also bars the justice department from demanding local election officials segregate or not count ballots that the federal government deems may have been cast by ineligible voters.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

© Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

© Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

Rex Patrick’s latest transparency fight is over what he calls ‘most open secret in the history of Australian spying’ – maybe even the world

• Get our daily political email, free app or daily news podcast

A campaign to uncover any documents relating to whether Australian spies bugged Timor-Leste to gain the upper hand in sensitive oil and gas negotiations will be a little less secret after a critical win by the former senator Rex Patrick.

The politician turned transparency advocate is trying to finally lift the lid on the top-secret mission in 2004 that became a public scandal years later after an ex-spy and a former attorney general attempted to mount a case in The Hague.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Marco Rubio pulls plug on traditional photo op at meeting of foreign ministers after about one-third of countries threaten boycott

The traditional “family photo” to open the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting has been abruptly cancelled in the US after a host of nations – including Australia and the UK – refused to appear beside the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, pulled the plug after several European officials, the UK and Australia made it known they would boycott or walk out of the snapshot that often kicks off such international gatherings.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Megan Varner/Pool Reuters/AP

© Photograph: Megan Varner/Pool Reuters/AP

© Photograph: Megan Varner/Pool Reuters/AP

Marco Rubio pulls plug on traditional photo op at meeting of foreign ministers after about one-third of countries threaten boycott

The traditional “family photo” to open the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting has been abruptly cancelled in the US after a host of nations – including Australia and the UK – refused to appear beside the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, pulled the plug after several European officials, the UK and Australia made it known they would boycott or walk out of the snapshot that often kicks off such international gatherings.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Megan Varner/Pool Reuters/AP

© Photograph: Megan Varner/Pool Reuters/AP

© Photograph: Megan Varner/Pool Reuters/AP

Rex Patrick’s latest transparency fight is over what he calls ‘most open secret in the history of Australian spying’ – maybe even the world

• Get our daily political email, free app or daily news podcast

A campaign to uncover any documents relating to whether Australian spies bugged Timor-Leste to gain the upper hand in sensitive oil and gas negotiations will be a little less secret after a critical win by the former senator Rex Patrick.

The politician turned transparency advocate is trying to finally lift the lid on the top-secret mission in 2004 that became a public scandal years later after an ex-spy and a former attorney general attempted to mount a case in The Hague.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

© Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Stephen Hubbard said that only when he was being taken from Moscow to St Petersburg did he believe he was ‘going somewhere’

In his first comments since recently being released from a Russian prison, a retired Michigan teacher said he only believed he would be freed when he got new clothes.

Stephen Hubbard, 74, remarked on Friday that he had heard many times previously that he would be released – but never really trusted what he was told, adopting a philosophy of “seeing is believing” and “actions speak louder than words”.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images

Stephen Hubbard said that only when he was being taken from Moscow to St Petersburg did he believe he was ‘going somewhere’

In his first comments since recently being released from a Russian prison, a retired Michigan teacher said he only believed he would be freed when he got new clothes.

Stephen Hubbard, 74, remarked on Friday that he had heard many times previously that he would be released – but never really trusted what he was told, adopting a philosophy of “seeing is believing” and “actions speak louder than words”.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images

Demand comes after Guardian investigation found ICE failed to record data on miscarriages suffered by immigrants in its custody between October 2025 and June 2026

US lawmakers are urgently demanding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) disclose how many pregnant immigrants have experienced miscarriages, stillbirths and pregnancy-related hospitalizations while in the its custody, after the agency admitted it lost count last year.

US representatives sent the request following a recent Guardian investigation revealing that the Trump administration is detaining a record number of pregnant women and teens, and at the same has lost track of how many suffered miscarriages.

Continue reading...

© Composite: Getty Images

© Composite: Getty Images

© Composite: Getty Images

The DOJ is acting to "intensely and swiftly" escalate its probe, the top federal prosecutor in Alaska said.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are on the ballot when voters head to the polls on Nov. 3.