WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
Spain's king berated, Badenoch criticised, and why monkeys can't type Shakespeare

 
today's international story

Flood survivors pelt Spain's king with mud

What happened
An angry mob threw mud at King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain and chanted "murderers, murderers" during the royals' visit to Valencia after the region suffered one of the deadliest floods in decades.

Who said what
"Why didn't you arrive earlier, you're four days late,” a young man told the king in the town of Paiporta. Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also visited the town, but was escorted away as an angry mob assembled around him, reported El Periodico.

"Anger and frustration has been mounting", said The Independent, over what have been widely perceived as delayed alerts from the authorities about the severity of rainfall last week that triggered "tsunami-style" flooding. "Questions have swirled" as to why an alert warning people to stay in their homes was only sent out after the flooding had begun, said The Guardian. One man told news site Eldiario.es that it was "just after 8pm – after an hour with water up to my neck and swallowing mud – the alert went off".

Locals have also been upset by the slow pace of emergency support, with most of the clean-up operation being carried out by residents and thousands of volunteers.

What next?
Spain's meteorological agency has issued fresh warnings for torrential rain in the flood-ravaged region. Residents in some parts of the country have been advised to avoid unnecessary travel.

 
 
today's politics story

Badenoch faces backlash over Partygate comments

What happened
Bereaved Covid families have condemned newly elected Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch for hailing Boris Johnson as a "great prime minister" and claiming that the Partygate scandal was "overblown".

Who said what
Badenoch told BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the Partygate story was exaggerated and said the government should not have been fining people for "everyday activities" during lockdown.

The comment was "cruel and highlights just how detached politicians can be from the people they represent", Lobby Akinnola, a spokesman for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, told The Independent.

Research has shown that Partygate and other scandals "really did have an effect on public trust in government", said Dr Simon Williams, a behavioural scientist and public health researcher at Swansea University. "So as well as being offensive, it's very unhelpful to try to retrospectively minimise the impact of Partygate."

What next?
Badenoch, who became Tory leader on Saturday, has promised to tell "hard truths" to the country and her party. Ellie Reeves, the Labour Party chair, said her comments on Partygate showed the Conservatives "haven't listened and haven't learnt".

 
 
Today's science story

Monkeys will never type Shakespeare, study finds

What happened
Contrary to a famous thought experiment, monkeys will never type out the complete works of William Shakespeare – or even a short book – a new study suggests.

Who said what
The "infinite monkey theorem" claims that a monkey pressing random keys on a typewriter would eventually reproduce the complete works of Shakespeare if given an infinite amount of time.

But in the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Franklin Open, Sydney-based researchers Stephen Woodcock and Jay Falletta have rejected this theorem as "misleading" because the chance of completing Shakespeare's complete works, while possible, would take longer than the lifespan of our universe.

What next?
Interdisciplinary clinician-scientist Chris Banerji, theme lead for Clinical AI at the Alan Turing Institute in London, agreed that monkeys randomly typing Shakespeare's works may be unlikely, but argued it could still occur given the possibility that the universe may contain infinite worlds.

"In the words of the Bard, 'Until I know this sure uncertainty, I'll entertain the offered fallacy'," Banjeri told CNN.

 
 

It's not all bad

A new device designed to transform the surgical treatment of brain tumours has begun its first clinical trial in the UK. Made from graphene, a material known for its remarkable strength and conductivity, the brain chip can differentiate between cancerous and healthy brain tissue by analysing electrical signals. Known as the brain-computer interface (BCI), the chip could revolutionise brain surgery by enhancing accuracy in tumour removal. Researchers believe it could also help treat stroke and epilepsy by offering fresh insights into brain cell communication.

 
 
under the radar

Ecuador's cloud forest may have right to call the tune

A cloud forest in Ecuador could be recognised as an author – the latest development in a burgeoning global movement to grant legal rights to nature. The More-Than-Human-Life (Moth) Project has petitioned Ecuador's copyright office to recognise the Los Cedros forest as the co-creator of a song composed there. The move by the NYU School of Law-based initiative is the world's first legal attempt to "recognise an ecosystem's moral authorship of a work of art", said The Guardian.

The song, which includes the sounds of bats, monkeys and leaves recorded in Los Cedros, was "written with the forest", said writer Robert Macfarlane.

Los Cedros in the northwest Andes is home to a "vast" number of species, said BBC Future. Most of the reserve is in a "cloud forest", where "the air is heavy with moisture" and permanent condensation. Despite "extensive deforestation" in the region, the forest's nearly 12,000 acres "buzz and thrum with life". That's thanks to a "powerful, and increasingly influential, global legal movement". In 2008 lobbying by Indigenous groups led Ecuador to constitutionally enshrine the rights of nature alongside humans: a world first.

But conservation efforts hit a "major stumbling block" in 2017, said Yes Magazine. Ecuador granted the state-owned mining company concessions in Los Cedros – which local groups argued would contravene the forest's rights. After a prolonged legal battle, the Constitutional Court agreed; in 2021 it revoked the permits and granted Los Cedros legal personhood.

That landmark ruling has inspired similar efforts around the world. To date, efforts to grant legal rights to nature have been pursued in 44 countries. The ruling provides "a firm legal foundation" for the claim on moral authorship, César Rodríguez-Garavito, founding director of the Moth Project, told The Guardian.

 
 
on this day

4 November 1960

Primatologist Jane Goodall observed a chimpanzee using stalks of grass to get ants out of an ant hill, demonstrating that the animals were capable of using tools – an ability previously believed to be exclusive to humans. Introducing Goodall at a Unesco event last month, director-general Audrey Azoulay said her work had "shattered the divide" between humans and animals.

 
 
Today's newspapers

Metro leads on Spain's King and Queen being pelted with mud while visiting flood-devastated Valencia. The Times says their visit to the city was "emotional". The FT reports from inside the "final days" of Trump's "dark" campaign and the i paper leads on its own poll, which suggests that many Britons want Kamala Harris to win, but most expect Trump will be the victor. Meanwhile, The Mirror leads with an image of a lead pipe it says was used by Lord Lucan as a murder weapon. 

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Giving tourists a dodgy steer

Londoners have come up with a crafty solution to divert some of the tourists crowding into the capital's trendiest restaurants: flood the internet with recommendations for tourist-friendly chain Angus Steakhouse. Reddit users have been posting effusive praise for the formerly unloved restaurants: "they have the best steak sandwiches", "influencers should try it and be amazed", "apparently it’s Taylor Swift’s favourite place in London to eat". The scheme appears to be working, with reports of queues extending outside the chain's Cranbourne St location.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Tess Foley-Cox, Harriet Marsden and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Carlos Lujan / Europa Press / Getty Images; Benjamin Cremel / AFP / Getty Images; Found Image Holdings / Corbis / Getty Images.