JD Vance letter may offer last chance to avert fresh conflict between US and Iran

US vice-president writes to top Iranian security official in sign Washington has not abandoned diplomacy

Hopes of averting a major new conflagration between Iran and the US soon after Tuesday’s midterm elections could rest on Iran’s response to a personal letter from the US vice-president, JD Vance, offering to restart diplomacy.

The letter, written after predominantly Qatari mediation, was sent to the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, Mohsen Rezaei on Sunday. It requires Tehran to agree to make commitments on its nuclear programme at the start of a process that would lead to the opening of the strait of Hormuz within seven days in return for US sanctions relief.

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Local devolution decisions rest solely with Scotland and Wales, first ministers tell Burnham

John Swinney and Rhun ap Iorwerth say devolving power further is up to Holyrood and Senedd – not Westminster

Scotland and Wales’s first ministers have told Andy Burnham that decisions on local devolution rest solely with their parliaments, in response to the prime minister’s push to extend English-style regional powers across the UK.

After Burnham held discussions in Glasgow with John Swinney and Rhun ap Iorwerth about localised employment and reindustrialisation powers, Downing Street characterised the talks as constructive.

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Russell Brand told police he led a ‘very promiscuous’ life, trial hears

Comedian accused of sexual offences against six women said consensual encounters were ‘unfavourably reframed decades later’

Russell Brand told police he had led a “very promiscuous” life and consensual sexual encounters had been “unfavourably reframed decades later”, his trial has heard.

The 51-year-old comedian blamed the allegations on “defamatory and fictitious” media reports. He said in a statement that he had had sexual encounters in countless locations and scenarios and kissed hundreds of people in public while trying to be “friendly, consensual and warm”.

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Controversial Islamic cleric shot dead in northern Nigeria

Yahaya Masussuka had posted videos in which he rejected some elements of mainstream Islam.

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'Maxxing' selected as Dictionary.com word of the year

"Whatever we're doing, we want to push it further," said an expert on why Americans are embracing the term, which is short for maximising.

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NHS consultants to go on two-day strike in England in November

Industrial action by senior doctors to begin on 25 November with only emergency cover provided, BMA says

England’s most senior hospital doctors will strike next month in a dispute over their pay and hours, prompting NHS bosses to warn that patients will suffer “pain, discomfort and inconvenience”.

Consultant doctors, who earn an average of £152,000 a year inclusive of overtime and merit awards, will stage a two-day walkout on 25 and 26 November, as hospitals gear up for the extra pressures winter brings.

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Sydney's new $5bn airport has one big problem: Getting there is tough

The airport won’t have direct public transportation for a year. How do locals feel about getting there?

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Four-year-old girl dies after falling from east London tower block

Police say the incident at an address in Barking is not believed to be suspicious

A four-year-old girl has died after falling from a tower block in east London.

She was injured after “falling from height” at an address in St Paul’s Road, Barking, on Saturday and died in hospital, the Metropolitan police said.

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Manhunt under way to find prisoner who absconded from medical facility

Met police say Anthony Lloyd, 38, was last seen on Friday in south London, and ‘poses a risk to himself and the public’

A manhunt is under way to locate a prisoner who police say “poses a risk both to himself and the public” after he absconded from a medical facility in London.

Anthony Lloyd forced his way out of a health unit in Lewisham, in south-east London, shortly after 4pm on Friday, the Metropolitan police said.

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Palestinian families displaced as Israeli forces demolish Hebron homes, local officials say

The crackdown follows the killing of two Israeli soldiers by two Palestinian gunmen on Friday - and comes just days ahead of Israel's election.

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