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Unison union refuses to ballot members on offer that would make 11% of council employees worse off

• UK politics live – latest updates

Thousands of Glasgow council workers face being sacked and reappointed under less favourable terms in one of the UK’s biggest ever “fire-and-rehire” exercises, after union negotiations broke down once again this week.

About 23,000 workers – all of the council’s non-teaching staff – first heard they were affected last week when talks between the SNP-led council and the GMB, Unison and Unite unions fell apart. Those negotiations concerned a new pay and grading system designed to resolve historical pay equality issues. Unison refused to ballot its members on an offer that would mean pay cuts for 11% of council employees, prompting the council to begin issuing fire-and-rehire letters.

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The U.S. ambassador said his office was "providing full cooperation with the investigation."

Volunteers and students prepare safer, cleaner classrooms in advance of the academic year in Senegal's capital.

F1 updates from 8am BST in Sepang
Verstappen ends pole wait | And mail Yara

Tyres: Tyre degradation has been one of the big talking points throughout the weekend, and with the rain threatening to shake things up, it is worth taking another look at what could prove crucial if the track starts to dry.

The circuit’s naturally abrasive surface is already putting plenty of stress through the tyres, while the extreme track temperatures had been adding to the problem too. With the conditions cooling, that is less of a concern for now.

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• Updates from the men’s premiership decider at Accor Stadium

• Any thoughts? Get in touch with an email

• NRLW: Roosters blow away Broncos to claim third premiership

The first wave of Knights successes came against a backdrop of uncertainty about what a post-industrial future might mean for the steel city. Two decades on, for better or worse, working-class Newcastle is now safer, more confident and outward-looking; also more expensive and exclusive.

DCE has spoken to Channel 9 about the enormity of the occasion.

To be honest, just because of the occasion of the grand final, it’s been really easy to put it to the side. I feel like the moment I’ve made it all about myself at any time of my career, it’s never really worked out too well. So real team focus today.

Yeah, really good. The longer turnaround I feel really helped us. We were able to get extra recovery in and then build our week really nicely. So I feel like it was a great week of preparation. And now it’s just trusting that to go out and play… it’s not about any storyline for us tonight. It’s just about getting the job done.

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The Edmonton Oilers have proven they can get it done without running and gunning.

Conservative leader defends plan to extend free childcare to high earners, as Tory conference begins in Birmingham today

On Friday the Times revealed that Katie Lam, the communities secretary, told a meeting in private earlier this year that the state pension system needs a fundamental overhaul.

Speaking in June, when she was a frontbencher but not yet in the shadow cabinet, Lam was asked at a meeting with activists if she thought the pensions triple lock was sustainable. She replied:

Ultimately I think what we will need in the end is an entirely new pension system.

I mean, a baby that is born today has a 20% chance of living to be 100 and I don’t think we can fund one in five people half of their lives, you know, for the first 20 and the last 30 years. But obviously if you are 90 you probably can’t go out and get a job right, so I think you have to be realistic about how you would taper that and bring that in across the population.

The fact is, the triple lock and pensions are things that people have contributed to.

Conservatives believe that if you have contributed, then you deserve to get your state pension.

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Moscow struck city’s North Bridge this morning, around 20-minutes drive away from the station where the German chancellor arrived

Merz has met Ukraine’s President Voldymyr Zelenskyy at the main war memorial on the Maidan in Kyiv.

Both men lay tributes at the central site, which features thousands of Ukrainian flags and framed portraits of the soldiers who’ve been killed in the war that’s gone on for more than four-and-a-half years.

Some pictures from the scene just now:

The North Bridge – one of several connecting central historic Kyiv to the residential suburbs across the Dnipro river -was struck not long after the German chancellor’s arrival in the Ukrainian capital.

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• Latest news before Nations League fixtures

• Share your thoughts with John via email

Harry Kane, now on 89 international goals from 124 games, says the Croatia performance has to be the blueprint for how England play.

“Even when we were 1-0 up, we went for two, went for three, went for four, and that’s got to be our mentality. When you have a certain style of playing, you can’t just pick and choose when you want to do it. It’s just relentless. It’s non-stop.

Celtic said the club would not be “intimidated or coerced by organised acts of disruption”, adding “there is a line between protest and deliberate disruption. Today that line was crossed … The club will protect its employees, directors, shareholders and supporters. The reputation of Celtic Football Club is non negotiable.”

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1. Superpowers Race to Put Nuclear Reactors on the Moon  The New York Times
2. Spotlight on space nuclear  Aerospace America
3. A 1,000°C Lunar Microreactor Could Power the Next Era of Moon Bases  universetoday.com

1. Superpowers Race to Put Nuclear Reactors on the Moon  The New York Times
2. Spotlight on space nuclear  Aerospace America

By embracing the role of amiable lunk, the wrestler turned actor has become an unlikely, and very modern, leading man. But does his relationship with the WWE, and its controversial former owner, risk tarnishing his brand?

I must admit, I was apprehensive about meeting John Cena. The WWE wrestler turned actor has built an enviable Hollywood career playing idiots – capable idiots with real heart, but dimwits nevertheless. Still, Cena is obviously nobody’s fool; fools don’t rise from humble beginnings to become their generation’s answer to Hulk Hogan or The Rock. Would the Cena who appears on my computer screen be the real one? Or something closer to the comic-book characters he embodies so well: guileless, silly and fond of a deliberate misunderstanding?

It is immediately clear that this is no manchild. Perfectly punctual, he greets me with a lavish formality befitting a man who made his film debut as the title character in The Marine. Within a minute he has volunteered, unprompted, that “a core value of mine is respect”. Cena, 49, is speaking to me on behalf of Matchbox: The Movie, a film extension of the Mattel toy car brand for Apple TV, and for 45 minutes he is generous, funny, complimentary and elusive without ever being evasive. It’s a genuinely radical thing for a man built like a chest freezer – having only recently retired from wrestling after 26 years – to be so relaxed about being ridiculous, and in an age of such joyless online strongmen as Trump, Musk and Andrew Tate, his buff charm is welcome.

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Brazilian speech therapists say struggle for acceptance is part of wider prejudice embedded into Portuguese society

Not long after she started studying to become a nurse in Portugal, Iracema Ferreira began bringing a dictionary to her classes as a retort to accusations she was speaking Brazilian, not Portuguese. “It was to show that those words are in the Portuguese language dictionary,” she said.

A Brazilian speech therapist, Ferreira moved to Portugal in 2020 and later heard from several colleagues from her home country that the process of getting a licence to work in the European country was a dead end. The 45-year-old soon abandoned the idea of continuing the career she had practised for a decade and switched to nursing instead.

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Modern Art Oxford
Entropy and hopelessness become thrillingly confrontational in this ambitious show, which recreates Nelson’s studio, shacks and sand dunes in dilapidated form

It’s either a cry for help or a scream into the void. Whichever it is, Mike Nelson’s latest exhibition is the English artist at his most frustrated, scared, introspective and personal. This is a show filled with rot and dilapidation, insanity and dereliction. It’s big, ambitious, immersive, complex and very, very good.

It’s not Nelson’s first time at Modern Art Oxford. He was last here in 2004, with a crumbling shack in the process of being swallowed by desert dunes. The shack is back, rebuilt in the same gallery, as if it never actually left – just temporarily blinked in and out of temporal existence. But it’s different now, more weathered, more broken. And that vast pile of sand is different too – you can see that it’s not a real dune, it’s a thin layer of sand held up on carpets and a rusted metal frame. The whole thing is an illusion. It always was, we just couldn’t see it.

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A deep-seated duopoly allows the tech giants to exploit the public and developers. But the regulator has powers to stop this abuse – it should use them

• Chi Onwurah is the Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West and chair of the parliamentary science, innovation and technology committee

Debates around big tech and digital regulation can sometimes feel distant from the everyday concerns of voters. But the power that a small number of global tech companies hold over our lives goes far beyond what most people realise.

As chair of the parliamentary science, innovation and technology committee, I have spent years raising concerns about this: from the data they harvest and the digital “twins” they build of us, to the algorithms that decide what our children see.

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CINCINNATI, OH - A young man killed by an Uzbek truck driver earlier this year in Ohio, along with several instances of illegal immigrant truck drivers involved in fatal crashes, has sparked a larger conversation in southwest Ohio about fraud, crime, immigration and how gaps in trucking industry oversight are putting Americans at risk.

Tobias "Toby" Forsythe, a 21-year-old goalkeeper from Ohio on the University of Massachusetts Lowell men’s soccer team, was killed July 5 when authorities say a semi-truck driven by 42-year-old Uzbek national Bekhzod Asrarov, who entered the country under the Biden administration's diversity visa lottery program, rear-ended Forsythe’s Honda Accord on Interstate 71 in Madison County, Ohio.

It was later determined, according to court documents, that Asrarov could not speak or understand English well enough to communicate with responding state troopers without the use of Google Translate, despite holding an Ohio commercial driver’s license, and that he allegedly removed a dashboard camera from his truck after the fatal crash in an effort to conceal or destroy evidence.

"We cannot let truckers like Asrarov, who can’t read our road signs or speak to law enforcement, drive 80,000-pound rigs on America’s highways," Transportation Secretary Sean posted on X after the crash.

IMMIGRANT TRUCK DRIVER ADMITTED TO US UNDER BIDEN ALLEGEDLY KILLS UMASS SOCCER STAR, SPOKE NO ENGLISH

In southwest Ohio, a researcher known as Nodawolf has been sounding the alarm to his growing follower count about a vast network of trucking companies, many of them owned or operated by Uzbek nationals, that have popped up in communities like Loveland, Middletown, and Maineville, where Asrarov resides, in recent years and could be contributing to the unsafe practices that took the life of Forsythe, and many others across the country.

Nodawolf, who Fox News Digital granted anonymity due to the death threats he’s received from his online reporting, said his research has focused on what he describes as an interconnected network of Uzbek-linked trucking companies in southwest Ohio, including companies that have donated money toward construction of a local Islamic center, according to the center's own website. 

"All of them have English violations and have manipulated ELDs," Nodawolf said, referring to electronic logging devices that track a trucker’s driving hours and are intended to enforce federal limits on how long drivers can stay behind the wheel.

The Islamic Center, located in Maineville, told Fox News Digital that a "charitable contribution or participation in a community fundraising activity, by itself, should not be interpreted as evidence of an ownership, employment, contractual, commercial, or other business relationship with the Islamic Center or its leadership."

A Fox News Digital review identified hundreds of trucking companies and other trucking entities registered in Maineville and surrounding southwest Ohio communities, including dozens that were registered in recent years. A separate review of companies identified as connected to the local Uzbek community found serious FMCSA safety violations, including drivers cited for failing English-proficiency requirements and other federal trucking violations.

TRUMP ADMIN TRUCKING CRACKDOWN LANDS 51 IMMIGRATION DETENTIONS, 36 ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY VIOLATIONS

"This really concerns me, you know, as a father," Nodawolf told Fox News Digital. "I mean, it's clearly obvious that they either don't understand our laws, they don't care about our laws, or they know our laws and they're taking advantage of it."

Nodawolf has reported on Uzbek trucking networks communicating on the social media platform Telegram. One of those Telegram channels, named "UzbegimAmerica," has routinely mentioned the Uzbek community in Maineville. Court documents show the owner of that channel, Farkhod Faiziev, is a suspected illegal immigrant from Uzbekistan.

The Trump administration has made significant progress on the issue of removing foreign truck drivers who pose a danger being removed from the road – including a recent multi-agency operation in Arizona’s Yuma Sector, which led to the arrest of 95 illegal alien truck drivers earlier this month – striking at the heart of human and drug smuggling operations at the U.S. southern border.

The Departments of Homeland Security, Transportation and Justice recently announced a coordinated crackdown on trucking and CDL fraud targeting fraudulent licensing, unauthorized employment, identity-document fraud, shell companies and other criminal activity. The effort includes inspections at more than 200 driving schools across 23 states, investigations based on more than 1,000 leads, enforcement operations targeting illegal immigrants with commercial licenses and a new multi-state DOJ task force focused on trucking-related fraud and roadway safety.

A trucking-industry veteran with decades of experience who spoke to Fox News Digital under the condition of anonymity for his safety described a developing fraud scheme popular with immigrant communities known as "chameleon carriers", a network of trucking companies that appear separate on paper but, he said, share the same drivers, trucks and operations. The arrangement starts when operators establish one company that is "quote-unquote legitimate," he said, then create additional carriers and authorities while using the same underlying assets across them.

ILLEGAL TRUCKER CASES FUEL GOP PUSH TO CRACK DOWN ON CDL MILLS AS DEMS LARGELY SILENT

The point, the industry expert said, is to "spread out their safety liability across multiple companies." Rather than allowing inspections and violations to pile up under one carrier, he said, the operation can distribute them among multiple motor-carrier authorities.

"If they have 10 inspections and 10 violations across 10 different companies, that doesn’t hurt the safety rating as much," he said. "But if it was one company that had 10 inspections and 10 violations, that one company is going to get hammered."

The separate companies can also serve as a contingency plan, he said. If one carrier is shut down, loses insurance or becomes too damaged by safety problems, "they’re able to immediately move all of the equipment and drivers and everything under one of the different companies," the industry veteran said. "Their operation never stops. There’s no way to shut them down."

He further alleged the structure can facilitate cargo theft, with a company disappearing after obtaining a high-value shipment while the broader network continues operating through its remaining entities. "They lost one of their shell companies, basically, but they just got $5 million in iPads," he said.

The industry expert said the model can be particularly dangerous, in his view, because it allows companies to keep operating despite safety problems while allegedly using drivers who may not be legally authorized to work in the United States. He said operators can make that harder to detect by classifying drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, potentially avoiding the ordinary employee I-9 verification process.

"If you’re using a bunch of people from a third-world country that just showed up in the United States as drivers, whether they’re here legally or not, how well do you think they’re going to maintain their equipment and be able to follow the laws?" he said.

Seven of the trucking schools targeted by the Department of Transportation last month are located in Ohio, DOT told Fox News last month.

A Notice of Proposed Removal was recently issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for Turan CDL School, a Middletown-based company that has advertised CDL training to Uzbek speakers, including advertisements suggesting students could obtain a CDL without first learning English, as well as Google reviews from customers claiming they earned their licenses in as little as one week.

ILLEGAL ALIEN'S ‘INEXCUSABLE’ CRIME SPARKS INTERSTATE CLASH BETWEEN GOP SEN, DEM GOV: ‘YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED’

"There's 'what do the rules say' and then 'what's happening on the ground," Andrew Poliakoff, vice president of the Commercial Vehicle Training Association, told Fox 28 Columbus shortly after the crash that killed Forsythe. "We're seeing now is that there are a lot of people committing fraud, and engaging in a variety of bad actions issuing commercial driver's licenses."

Victor Louis, whose Cincinnati based company Load Secure verifies the identities of drivers entering its network, told Fox News Digital that he has seen local advertisements promising prospective truckers a CDL in as little as a week immediately raise red flags.

"Trucking is such an inherently dangerous activity. Essentially, you're driving a 40-ton missile down the road," Louis said. "To think that someone is going to be certified to do that within a week, that may or may not speak English, like that doesn't make any sense."

Louis said his company is also seeing a significant number of non-domiciled drivers, foreign drivers who hold commercial licenses issued by a U.S. state despite not having their permanent residence in that state. He said roughly 15% to 20% of drivers entering Load Secure's network fall into that category and estimated the figure could be around 20% among long-haul truckers nationwide.

"Whether they're here legally or not, I don't know, but they are essentially foreign nationals," Louis said. He argued that long-haul trucking can be particularly attractive to migrants because drivers can spend weeks at a time living on the road rather than maintaining a permanent home near their workplace.

Louis said cargo theft and the security of the broader supply chain are among his biggest concerns.

"What we see with that market of non-domiciled drivers is a high propensity of cargo theft, an extremely high propensity," he said. "It’s wreaking havoc on our supply chain. Number one, it's extremely dangerous and number two, it is very unsecure. We don't know if things are being tampered with. This exposes our supply chains."

The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles told Fox News Digital that it is reviewing the state’s nondomiciled commercial driver’s license holders in coordination with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Of the roughly 5,000 nondomiciled credentials originally issued, about 3,500 remain active, meaning approximately 1,500 are no longer active as the review continues.

On Sept. 16, Fox News reported that ICE arrested two Uzbek illegal alien truck drivers in New Jersey as part of nationwide crackdown on fraudulent CDLs.

"We are starting to go into those thousand leads of fraud, waste and abuse into our trucking industry," Mullin said in a press conference last month. "We're going to prioritize going after employees that are suspected of accepting payments to help illegals bypass driver's license and CDL requirements."

In Brown County, Ohio, on Sept. 2, an Indian national with a CDL out of California crashed his semi-truck head-on into the car of 50-year-old Brenda Watson, who died at the scene. The driver, Manjit Singh , was later determined to be an illegal immigrant and ICE announced in a press release that a detainer was placed along with a charge of aggravated vehicular homicide.

"One state’s regulatory failure becomes every state’s highway threat," Ohio attorney Mehek Cooke told News Digital. "Republican governors cannot assume their states were insulated from Biden’s border crisis simply because they opposed his policies."

Fox News Digital reached out to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine's office for comment.

Last month, ICE launched a tip-line for reporting fraudulent CDL licenses.

"Too many American lives have been lost or permanently changed because illegal aliens who have no business being on our roads have been granted CDLs," Mullin said in a press release. "ICE and our federal partners, including the Department of Transportation, will be cracking down on CDL fraud so that not one more American life is lost to a reckless illegal alien behind the wheel of a semi-truck."

1. ‘We will build this pipeline for the people of Canada’: Hodgson promises Pacific Link will get built  CTV News
2. Mark Carney’s pipeline approval puts renewed focus on the unfinished Pathways project  Toronto Star
3. Another oilsands boom? Smith, Carney say this time Canada will be ready  Global News
4. Carney’s first-ever project of national interest, Stelco cites tariffs for layoffs and finance executives bet on prediction markets: Must-read business and investing stories for the week of October 3  The Globe and Mail
5. Varcoe: 'A lot of road yet to travel' — past West Coast pipeline projects highlight challenges and solutions for Pacific Link  Calgary Herald

1. ‘We will build this pipeline for the people of Canada’: Hodgson promises Pacific Link will get built  CTV News
2. Mark Carney’s pipeline approval puts renewed focus on the unfinished Pathways project  Toronto Star
3. Another oilsands boom? Smith, Carney say this time Canada will be ready  Global News
4. Carney’s first-ever project of national interest, Stelco cites tariffs for layoffs and finance executives bet on prediction markets: Must-read business and investing stories for the week of October 3  The Globe and Mail
5. Varcoe: 'A lot of road yet to travel' — past West Coast pipeline projects highlight challenges and solutions for Pacific Link  Calgary Herald

You can spend a night in Jimmy Hoffa’s summer home in Michigan  CTV News

Why veterans are twice as likely to develop ALS  CTV News