WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
China car rampage, Welby resigns, and the NHS's new 'stop-smoking' pill

 
today's international story

Car rampage kills dozens in China

What happened
At least 35 people have been killed in a car attack on a busy sports precinct in China, believed to be the country's deadliest act of public violence in decades. Police say a man ran down groups of people exercising on a sports track at a stadium in the southern city of Zhuhai.

Who said what
The 62-year-old attacker, surnamed Fan, had been upset about the split of assets in his divorce settlement, according to police. He was arrested at the scene and admitted to hospital with wounds that are believed to have been self-inflicted.

The rampage occurred on Monday evening, but Chinese authorities "took almost 24 hours to officially disclose the incident", said Australian broadcaster SBS. Zhuhai is hosting the People's Liberation Army's annual air show, which opened yesterday, and internet searches for what happened were "heavily censored for users behind China’s Great Firewall", said the Associated Press.

"When horror hits China the first instinct is to shut it down," said the BBC's China correspondent Stephen McDonell, who was grabbed and pushed by an unidentified man when he tried to report on the incident. "On one level you can understand this," added McDonell. "Many of these inexplicable assaults on the community are copycat in nature … but officials here sometimes want these bad things to simply go away as quickly as possible."

What next?
President Xi Jinping has ordered that all efforts be made to treat the injured while demanding severe punishment for the perpetrator, according to Chinese state television network CCTV.

 
 
today's religion story

Archbishop of Canterbury resigns

What happened
The Archbishop of Canterbury stood down yesterday amid intense pressure over his handling of one of the Church of England's worst abuse scandals.

Who said what
Justin Welby said it had become clear that he "must take personal and institutional responsibility" for the "long and retraumatising" period after he was informed of allegations of abuse by Christian summer camp leader John Smyth back in 2013. The announcement came hours after Keir Starmer refused to publicly back the archbishop.

Welby "didn’t do enough when told about John Smyth's sadistic offending – and he knows it", said The Guardian's editorial board.

When Welby was ordained in 2013 after a "meteoric rise" he was a "relatively popular appointment in a notoriously divisive institute", said The Independent. But "it is this scandal that will now be his legacy".

What next?
The crisis threatens to "engulf more senior clergy", said The Daily Telegraph. Victims have called on two bishops and an associate minister to follow the archbishop in resigning over their involvement in the scandal.

 
 
Today's health story

NHS to roll out 'stop-smoking' pill

What happened
A "cheap" new pill that helps people quit smoking will be given to tens of thousands of adults in England as a part of a major government drive to prevent ill health.

The pill, varenicline, costs about £25 for 28 tablets "and is seen as a vital new tool in efforts to completely phase out smoking in the UK", said The Times.

It will be introduced to all NHS GP surgeries in England as an option for anyone who wants to quit smoking, with more than 85,000 people a year expected to benefit.

Who said what
"Prevention is better than cure," said Health Secretary Wes Streeting. "The rollout of this pill can save the NHS millions of pounds, save appointments to help other patients be seen faster, and save lives."

What next?
According to analysis by University College London, the use of varenicline on the NHS over the coming five years could prevent 9,500 smoking-related deaths, including those from cancer.

 
 

It's not all bad

Kazakhstan’s Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve is seeing a historic conservation milestone: the reintroduction of tigers, absent for more than 70 years. In September two Amur tigers, Bodhana and Kuma, were relocated from a Dutch sanctuary and released into a semi-natural enclosure. This marks the first international rewilding of tigers, a move that has been supported by the WWF and the Kazakh government. The project aims to rewild 50 tigers by 2035, offering hope that the species may see a resurgence.

 
 
under the radar

Smashing the Magic Circle's glass ceiling

The Magic Circle is trying to track down its first female member, who duped her way into the then all-male magicians' society by disguising herself as a teenage boy named Raymond.

Sophie Lloyd was expelled by the society in 1991 for "deliberate deception" after revealing her ruse. But with attitudes changing in the "old boys' club" of magic, the group now wants her back.

Back in 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed, the world wide web "pinged into existence" and the Magic Circle "readied itself for the 21st century by finally admitting women into its ranks", said The Times. But immediately after voting to allow women to be members, the group expelled one who had lurked secretly in their midst for two years.

Lloyd was admitted to the society in 1989 while posing as a bespectacled teenage boy called Raymond who had "a particular knack for making a £5 note burst into flames and then reappear". An actor by profession, Lloyd not only hoodwinked the judging panel in her 20-minute entrance exam, she even went for a drink with the examiner without him noticing.

Following the council meeting that voted to allow women to join, Lloyd threw off her wig and glasses to reveal that she was in fact a 28-year-old woman called Sophie. When Lloyd revealed her true self the council realised it had "been fooled by perhaps the greatest deception of all" – and its response was "swift and severe", said The Times.

Although "much has changed" since the 1990s, magic is "still a male-dominated sector", said The Guardian. The Magic Circle is now hoping that by "extending an olive branch" to its first, unofficial female member, "others may soon follow", added The Times.

 
 
on this day

13 November 1985

The Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted in Colombia, killing more than 23,000 residents of the city of Armero. The volcano had been dormant for almost 69 years, leaving the city unprepared for the volcanic mudflows that followed the eruption. This summer the Colombian Geographical Service reported the highest levels of seismic activity from this volcano since 2015 following an increased number of earthquakes in the region.

 
 
Today's newspapers

The resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has thrown the Church into "crisis", says the Daily Mail. The Telegraph says one of its writers, Allison Pearson, is facing a "Kafkaesque" hate crime inquiry over a year-old social media post where police are unable to say which post it concerned or who had made the complaint. Meanwhile, says the FT, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have both signalled their commitment to improving relations with Iran as they prepare for Donald Trump's return to the White House.

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Spread awareness

Costco was forced to recall 80,000 pounds of butter in the US after failing to warn customers of a key ingredient: milk. Kirkland Signature butter, a product made entirely from churned milk, listed cream as an ingredient, but failed to provide the allergen label "contains milk", forcing the FDA to step in to prevent "adverse health consequences". The overwhelming response to the frivolous recall has simply been "it's butter", although one user on X suggested a helpful tip for avoiding future incidents – a new label with a warning for stupid people.

 
 

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

Image credits, from top: Michael Zhang / AFP / Getty Images; Marvin Recinos / AFP / Getty Images; SimpleImages / Getty Images.