The Times

🔺 UPDATE: Massive flooding in southeast and south Spain has killed at least 51 people, including four children, and swept away crops, roads, bridges and cars as well as disrupted rail and air travel. Footage of the damage in Almeria and Valencia showed scenes of swollen rivers of flood water overwhelming streets and sweeping away vehicles. Videos shared on social media appeared to show people trapped in floodwaters, several of them hanging on to trees to avoid being swept away. More footage showed firefighters using long-line rescue helicopters to help people caught in floodwaters. Dozens of people spent the night trapped on top of lorries, the roofs of houses, bridges and in their cars

Children should be given stickers or toys instead of sweets on Halloween to save their teeth from decay, leading dentists have said. The Royal College of Surgeons of England offered tips to help children avoid tooth decay on the sweetest night of the year, including avoiding treats such as lollipops and sugary drinks. Tooth decay remains the leading cause of child hospital admissions, with 19,381 children aged five to nine in England being admitted to hospital for it in the year to April

Business leaders have warned they face a “perfect storm” in the budget as they are hit by more taxes, higher wage bills and the cost of implementing Labour’s overhaul of workers’ rights. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, will announce plans to increase employers’ national insurance contributions, which could raise up to £20bn to fund investment in public services. She will also confirm a rise in the minimum wage of at least 6.7% from April for more than three million workers, pushing up costs for companies. But she was warned by business leaders that her ambition risked being undermined by a series of decisions that load costs on to industry

🔺 Budget 2024 latest: The full package of measures, expected to increase employers’ NI contributions and capital gains tax, will be announced at 12.30pm on Wednesday. Here's everything you need to know. Get the latest information and updates below. 🔓 This is free to read

America’s survival bunker sales have boomed in the past few months as people prepare for political violence after next week’s election. Concerns are growing that a contested result between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on November 5 could lead to civil unrest, with a poll for The Times showing that a quarter of Americans feared civil war after the election. The bunker sector offers everything from backyard shelters to survival timeshares where people can “bug out” in the event of societal collapse

World leaders including the presidents of France, the United States and Russia are at risk because their security personnel can be easily tracked through their enthusiastic use of a fitness app, according to a French report. Members of the US Secret Service, responsible for the president and presidential candidates, as well as Emmanuel Macron’s protection officers and President Putin’s bodyguards, openly share maps of their running and cycling exploits with other users of Strava, linked to their smartwatches and phones, Le Monde said

For six decades, residents of a village in Hertfordshire have argued with the local council about who should pay to permanently fix their pothole-plagued road. In the row’s latest escalation, residents have been told by Hertfordshire county council that it will cost them £73,000 if they want to repair Whitebarns Lane in Furneux Pelham, which links the main road to a cul-de-sac, where many people live in social housing. The lane, which has 32 potholes, is designated by the council as a public footpath rather than a road which means it cannot be repaired using public money

Pearson has reported a 5% rise in underlying sales in the third quarter of the year as it began to see the commercial benefit from its foray into artificial intelligence. The educational publisher pointed to double-digit year-on-year billing growth in its higher education products that contain AI study tools. The division as a whole returned to growth in the third quarter with sales up 4%, though they were flat for the year to date

An Italian man knocked unconscious in a hit-and-run accident in Rome five years ago woke up convinced it was 1980. He claims to remember everything before that year but nothing since, stumping doctors who have called his case unique and inexplicable. Years of treatment since then have failed to jog his memory, Luciano D’Adamo said, as he gave his first interview on Tuesday. His memory is perfect until that March day in 1980 but “I didn’t remember anything about the next 39 years — no events, nothing that I lived through, no people,” he told Corriere della Sera

Axel Rudakubana, 18, from the village of Banks, Lancashire, was charged on Wednesday with an offence under the Terrorism Act as well as the production of the biological toxin ricin. He is also facing three charges of murder, ten of attempted murder and one of possessing a kitchen knife with a curved blade. His trial has been scheduled for January