* Kick It Out Israel finds 367 instances in 2024-25 * Of those, 118 were linked to Maccabi supporters Racist chanting by Israeli football fans grew rapidly over the past year, data shows, with Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters the most likely to engage in discriminatory behaviour. The research was conducted by Kick It Out Israel, which is funded by a civil society organisation, Givat Haviva, that works towards the “creation of a shared society for Jews and Arabs”. It found 367 instances of racist chanting at Israeli Premier League (IPL) matches in the 2024-25 season, a record total and an increase of 67% on the previous campaign. Continue reading...

And the meandering waterway which has long attracted anglers, hikers and poets is now the subject of a major pollution lawsuit.

Gold rises after biggest sell-off in five years Some economists are saying this is probably the peak in inflation. What does this mean for interest rates? Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said: CPI inflation was lower than feared in September, as it stayed at 3.8% rather than rising to 4.0% or above. We doubt this will prompt the Bank of England to cut interest rates from 4% in November. But it increases the chances of the next cut happening by February in line with our forecast and it supports our view that interest rates will be reduced to 3% next year. What’s more, this will probably be the peak in inflation. Our forecast is for CPI inflation to fall to 3.5% or below in October, not least due to the declines in utility and fuel prices that we already know about. Food price inflation may yet rise further, perhaps back above 5.0% by December, but there are… good reasons to expect it to fall back next year. It’s possible the chancellor will add to that trend in the budget on 26 November, either by reducing inflation directly (cutting VAT on utilities from 5% to 0% would trim CPI inflation by 0.2ppts) or indirectly as higher taxes chip away at economic activity. Continue reading...