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UK will help 'reshape Commonwealth' as Burnham joins the King in the Caribbean
The prime minister has said the UK will play a leading role reshaping the Commonwealth, including pursuing a debt "reset" to help nations struggling with higher borrowing costs.

Andy Burnham has arrived in Antigua and Barbuda, where he will join the King for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (CHOGM).

There has been significant talk in the build up over Britain's historical role in the slave trade, with Mr Burnham signalling he's "open" to calls for a formal apology.

Mr Burnham will on Tuesday say Britain wants to play its full part in shaping a new area for the Commonwealth and work with members on issues such as climate change, trade and security.

The prime minister said: "In today's more divided, unpredictable world, the Commonwealth has the potential to be a powerful force for good, bringing together a third of the global population, and I believe it is key that the UK plays its full role in that.

"Britain is bringing a new approach to this meeting, as we look to reshape a new era for the Commonwealth, as well as being open to discussions about the past.

"From trade to defence and security, together Commonwealth members can drive greater growth and opportunity for all of its citizens."

The prime minister is also expected to outline a vision for supporting countries in "debt spirals" exacerbated by rising global interest rates.

Around half the developing countries struggling with debt are in the Commonwealth, according to the government, and the PM will say non-G7 donors must join the private sector in tackling the problem.

The UK will also spearhead two new taskforces to bring businesses, investors and governments together - the first centring on critical minerals and barriers to trading, which will be set up by the end of the year.

The CHOGM summit runs until Wednesday in the capital St John's and the King will give his opening address on Tuesday.

He's expected to speak about slavery with "unflinching honesty" and "sincere sorrow", but Sky's royal correspondent says he will not be offering an apology at the meeting.

Mr Burnham, writing in The Guardian on Friday, expressed his "sorrow and regret for the pain and suffering of so many millions" affected by slavery but, like previous governments, rejected calls for financial compensation.

The prime minister said he didn't think the British people should "be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age under different laws and in which they played no personal part".

However, he said the UK was "offering a structured dialogue with those affected by the transatlantic slave trade".

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"Listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will form an important part of this process and I am open to them," he wrote.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch warned even an apology could lead to renewed calls for compensation and be used as "a lever to wedge open the door to ask for cash".


Two teens arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after five boys stabbed at Halloween party
Two boys have been arrested after five teenagers were seriously injured when they were allegedly stabbed at a party on Halloween.

The 17-year-old and 16-year-old, both from Southampton, have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and are still in police custody.

Hampshire Police were called following reports of the incident in Chandler's Ford, Hampshire, just after 10.30pm on Saturday.

It was reported that a group of uninvited males entered the supervised party via a garden fence and assaulted the five guests in the garden and surrounding roads, police said.

All five of the injured boys, three aged 16 and two aged 17, were taken to hospital having suffered serious injuries, police said.

Two of the seriously injured boys are still being treated in hospital, and one of the 17-year-old victims is in a life-threatening condition. The other three victims have been discharged from hospital.

Detective Chief Inspector Elizabeth Pirie said: "Whilst the two arrests are a significant development in our investigation, which has moved at pace since the incident was first reported to us, we still urge our communities to contact us with any information, no matter how small it may seem.

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"I understand the effect that such an incident will have had on the local community, and I do not underestimate the disruption that our scenes have caused to those living in the area. We are working hard to reduce the impact."


FIFA to partially release documents relating to World Cup sell-off plan
FIFA will give members of its ruling council access to some documents for the first time related to the World Cup sell-off, Sky News understands.

A letter has been sent by FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafstrom to council members as the deadline was reached for the governing body to respond to a series of questions about the controversy from UEFA, which is pushing for Gianni Infantino's departure.

It is understood council members will have access to "key documents" only in person at FIFA HQ in Zurich.

UEFA has sought all documents on the abandoned FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme, saying it could pursue a case against Mr Infantino for criminal mismanagement in Switzerland, alleging he undersold the tournaments for personal financial benefit.

FIFA Council members, including all six regional confederation presidents, have two weeks to register their interest to see the documents.

In the letter, obtained by Sky News, Mr Grafstrom wrote: "The documents will be available at FIFA's headquarters in Zurich, under strict review protocols to preserve confidentiality."

The conditions would appear designed to limit the ability to disclose the contents of the FFE venture.

Sky News revealed in August that it had been scrapped after a backlash led by European governing body UEFA, supported by individual national associations.

Two weeks ago, Sky News reported on 54 questions sent by UEFA to FIFA demanding answers on the secret negotiations by Mr Infantino to privatise the World Cup and for an independent investigation to be launched.

UEFA is also pursuing legal action against FIFA and financiers in the US to gain documents to potentially pursue criminal proceedings.

FIFA is understood to be citing the legal threat as restricting what it can disclose.

Alleged conflicts of interest

UEFA is also demanding answers over Mr Infantino's alleged "conflicts of interest" over business dealings with the
Trump family, a call between the leaders before US striker Folarin Balogun's red-card ban was lifted at the World Cup, and the creation of a FIFA Peace Prize for US President Donald Trump without the FIFA Council's approval.

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Mr Grafstrom told council members that FIFA is "currently working on a response to the letter, which we will share with all FIFA Council members in due course.

"FIFA also recognises the strong desire of some FIFA Council members, which was clearly expressed in that meeting, to have sight of documents related to the FFE proposal, notwithstanding that the FFE proposal is now irretrievably ended."

The letter reveals "there would be and has been no penalty to FIFA for withdrawing from the proposal", with Mr Grafstrom insisting the council could always have rejected selling off 20% of the World Cup.

Time running out to find candidate

UEFA is understood to still be seeking a candidate to run against Mr Infantino in the FIFA presidential election in March after withdrawing its support for FIFA's head, along with, among others, the FAs of England, Scotland and Wales.

The deadline for candidates is 18 November, with the backing of five of the 211 voting FAs needed.

Mr Infantino would still need to be declared eligible by passing election integrity checks to validate his candidacy.

FFE was planned in secret by Mr Infantino and a small group of advisers and investors, ‌bypassing FIFA's normal governance processes and failing to consult FIFA's Council, regional confederations or member associations, UEFA has alleged.

In response, FIFA accused European football's governing body of "harassment", and trying to influence the outcome by "spreading misinformation".

FIFA generates most of its income from the men's World Cup but it is projecting Brazil 2027 will be the first Women's World Cup to generate a profit.

UEFA has also highlighted concerns about Mr Infantino's discussions with Donald Trump and associates over the creation of a FIFA cryptocurrency, as Sky News revealed in February.


Major business group calls for fundamental change in UK-EU relationship as current system 'failing'
A major UK business group has called on the government to "fundamentally reassess" the country's relationship with the EU, as it said the current system is still "failing to deliver".

Businesses are still struggling with a "thicket" of Brexit red tape, according to a research report from the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) released on Monday.

The group welcomed Prime Minister Andy Burnham's statements about needing an "honest discussion" on the relationship with Europe.

"He deserves real credit", said the BCC's director general Shevaun Haviland.

In an interview with The Sunday Times last week, the prime minister said immigration into ⁠Britain had ⁠been "different" since Brexit, with more foreigners ‌moving permanently.

He said: "Freedom of movement had very significant challenges associated with it. Revolving door migration where people would come and then go back is different.

"The balance of migration has changed since then [the Brexit referencdum] hasn't it? I think we've just got to have an honest discussion about those things."

However, shadow chancellor Andrew Griffiths told Sky News' Sunday Morning With Anne McElvoy days later: "I want to remove frictions wherever we can. I want great British companies to have the best opportunities to do that.

"But I don't want to go back to open borders that the British people conclusively rejected."

Emboldened by Mr Burnham's comments, the BCC wants to secure a new deal that will "better serve the UK economy and stand the test of time".

Nine different models for the UK-EU relationship should be explored in depth and laid out by government, the BCC said.

"This is not a binary case of being in or out", Ms Haviland said

Problems to date

While companies have shown "great resilience" in Brexit adaptation, it has not removed the costs of paperwork, delays and "needless duplication of bureaucracy", she added.

UK firms have been pushed to the margins of supply chains they once helped build, the BCC said, due to a cocktail of customs, VAT, and regulatory barriers.

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Rising protectionism within the EU via proposed "Made in Europe" rules would give preference to European goods in public procurement and with subsidies.

The EU is building "a trade wall" to level the playing field with China, which could create "significant collateral damage" for neighbours like the UK, the report authors wrote.

Cost of inaction

Among the suggested options to evaluate are a bespoke customs union, a Swiss-style agreement, a European Economic Area (EEA)-style relationship, a combined model, or full EU membership.

While none were said to be "cost-free", the BCC said the "status quo also carries costs".

"The central choice is not between the status quo and turning back the clock. It is between continuing with repeated, issue-by-issue fixes or building a more stable relationship suited to the economic, trade and security pressures", the report read.

The government has been told to put out the evidence behind each option, explaining trade-offs, and choosing a relationship that gives businesses the strongest platform to benefit UK residents.


Hackers target refrigerators in Ireland and European countries in new wave of cyber attacks
Cyber hackers have targeted fridges and freezers in supermarkets in several European countries including Ireland – causing temperatures to increase and food to spoil.

Ireland's ‌third-largest supermarket chain, ​SuperValu, said its refrigeration systems ​limited to a specific ​model ⁠in ⁠13 of ‌its 223 stores ‌had been affected by a cyber ⁠incident.

Chilled ​and ​frozen products have been removed ⁠from ⁠sale, it added.

Sweden's cyber security centre said it was responding to several incidents ​in ICA and Co-op grocery stores, that had caused freezer temperatures to rise sharply overnight on Monday.

Meanwhile, fridges and freezers in dozens of stores across Belgium and ​Luxembourg operated by Ahold Delhaize were also hit by a cyberattack, the Belga news agency reported.

Carrefour said 15 out of its 700 shops in Belgium suffered problems, and five Spar stores operated under the Colruyt Group in the country also had their fridge systems attacked.

IKEA said that one of its outlets in Belgium had been impacted, but it could not rule out more being affected.

Belgium's prosecutor's office has opened a criminal investigation into the wave of attacks targeting supermarkets in the country, a spokesperson said.

Danish ​engineering company Danfoss ​said that 17 outlets in the Netherlands were impacted by the hacking, Dutch news site Nos reported.

An unspecified supermarket chain in Estonia was also affected, with temperatures set to 50C, technology supplier Kitman Coldtech told public broadcaster ERR.

The incidents come less than a month after a similar attack impacted hundreds of supermarkets in France, during which temperatures in some fridges rose to 50C and sparked fires.

Les Mousquetaires, which ⁠owns retailer Intermarche, said that approximately 150 of its stores were affected, with the retail group forced to dispose of all the food.

Last month, Monoprix said that about 5% of its 490 French stores, and Ahold Delhaize also took several systems offline as it contended with a "security issue" in its network.

A European Commission spokesperson said the wave of incidents highlighted the importance of cybersecurity across the bloc.

The EU Food Commissioner said that supply chains should be able to withstand and respond to cyber threats.

Though no one has ​claimed responsibility for the attack, the cases have put a spotlight on rising anxiety among regional
authorities over hybrid attacks spreading from conflicts after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow has repeatedly denied involvement in any sabotage or hybrid warfare operations.

'Everything is destroyed'

On Monday, one Swedish store said in a social media post that the temperature of its refrigerators and freezers had been set to 50C - echoing the incident in France.

At an ICA Baronen store in Stockholm, a notice said all the shop's freezers were broken due to a cyber attack.

Engla Ingwall, sales manager at an ICA franchise store in Stockholm said the attack occurred at 2am local time and was first noticed at 5.30am.

"There has been a cyberattack and all our freezers reached 50C," she said.

"Everything is destroyed."

Co-op told Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet that six of its stores had been affected by similar incidents.

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The retailer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sweden's national cyber security centre head John Billow said the agency was investigating the latest incidents.

The CEO of Belgian refrigeration company Sabcobel, Stephan Moelans, which operates Delhaize's systems, confirmed the incident was a cyber attack.

He said the incident unfolded when the units' evaporators were switched to defrost mode.

Luc De Laet, founder and owner of Belgian butchery chain De Laet & Van Haver, said he was woken at 3:30am by an employee telling him there was a problem.

He rushed to his store in Hove, south of Antwerp, and found the fridges turned up as high as 18C - ruining about €15,000 (£12,540) worth of meat.

"It's very scary. They are ⁠hacking the system that is doing the registration of the temperature, and they can program it at
a ​distance," he said.

Advances in technology have meant that devices ranging from refrigerators to heating systems that were manual, can now be controlled and monitored remotely.

This has created new opportunities for cyber criminals.

Tom Hegel, a researcher at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, said that attacks were usually extortion, politically motivated
or nation-state level operations, with the lack of financial demands ⁠in the recent supermarket cases pointing to sabotage.

"Retail is an easy target because retail chains run enormous estates of refrigeration controllers, building management
systems, ​door access panels and point-of-sale gear," he said.

"Grocery margins are thin and stock perishes within hours, so any disruption hurts quickly ​and in public."

Authorities have not indicated who could have been behind any of these incidents.


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