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— ‘A series of Green council groups who share power with Labour have already rejected the motion, including Lewes, Warwick, Rother and Havant. Among other groups to have disowned the policy are the Greens in Southwark, who did so to maintain a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

Ramsay said such groups “have been brave in speaking out about such a contentious motion”.

He said: “They have supported the Green party’s strong position of calling out the ethnic cleansing and war crimes in Gaza and how this must be combined with upholding the right of both Palestinians and Israelis to statehood and self-determination. Calling out a genocide is more important than debating definitions of Zionism.”’

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/oct/20/greens-adrian-ramsay-council-groups-reject-zionism-racism-policy

— ‘Drivers will get a guaranteed five minutes to decide whether to park and 10 minutes to leave after their parking session ends before they face a fine under new rules for private car parks that Andy Burnham said were designed to outlaw “rip-off” charges.

In the latest in a series of “everyday fixes” to ease the cost of living and give consumers a “fairer” deal, the prime minister said a new official code of practice for the industry meant motorists in England, Scotland and Wales would enjoy a range of new rights.

The consumer body Which? said the “long overdue” rules appeared to fall well short of what was needed to help drivers fight back against private parking “cowboys”, however.’

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/oct/19/andy-burnham-new-rules-private-parking-fines-code-of-practice

— ‘The prime minister is under pressure to go further, for example by stripping Thames of its licence, pushing for it to go into SAR immediately and then taking it out of administration without offering anything to the existing creditors.

Such a plan will inevitably be challenged in court, but Burnham is understood to be more willing to take on legal action than Starmer was. One adviser said: “Litigation was always a 100% certainty.”
…
Ewan McGaughey, a professor in law at King’s College, London, said: “The government’s best option is to start a special administration process for Thames Water before it runs up more debts, and sends billions more overseas.

“An orderly transition to public ownership does not require that banks in control are bailed out – on the contrary, the law says polluters should pay.”‘

— ‘The outlet, which describes itself as an anti-austerity, anti-Zionist and pro-freedom of expression platform, said it would be closed indefinitely. However, it added: “It is not over. This week, we will publish what really happened at the Canary and push back against the vicious campaign against our team and us. We may be down, but we’re not out yet.”

Its challenges have included difficulties in paying staff and contractors, which it said was the result of Lloyds Bank unexpectedly blocking access to “a substantial amount” of its money earlier this year.

However, some journalists at the Canary have said they believed the outlet’s banking issues had been used to distract from wider financial mismanagement. They claim that additional funding received over the summer – believed to be more than £2m – had been squandered on projects including a short-lived newspaper and the purchase of other websites.’

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/oct/19/the-canary-leftwing-news-website-closure

You can’t scam an honest man — Trump saw these marks a mile off.

— ‘Behind this flurry of deal-making, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler expected the US to defend the kingdom if it was attacked, as Washington has done in the past. But Prince Mohammed, like the leaders of other Arab petrostates who have invested billions of dollars to appease Trump, is learning a hard lesson: never count on Trump to protect you.

Over the summer, Trump’s war against Iran rekindled a years-long conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi militia in Yemen. Last month, as the Houthis intensified their attacks on Saudi territory and the kingdom’s Yemeni allies, the prince called Trump multiple times in September, urging him to launch US airstrikes against the Houthis, who are allied with Iran.

For now, Trump has resisted appeals from Prince Mohammed to drag American forces into the Houthi-Saudi battle – one of the best foreign policy decisions of an otherwise disastrous second term.’

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/19/saudi-arabia-trump-relationship