Alberta premier calls for referendum on secession after judge ruled initiative to force binding vote invalidThe Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has said that Alberta is essential" to the country's future, hours after the province's leader moved the oil-rich region closer toward a referendum on independence.Separatists in the western province spent months collecting signatures seeking to trigger a binding October vote on seceding from the nation. Continue reading...
Secretary of state suggests July meeting of alliance will be fraught as US demands help in strait of HormuzDonald Trump is disappointed that Nato allies refused to become more actively involved in attacking Iran, the US secretary of state has said, setting up what could become a fraught summit of the alliance in July.Marco Rubio, meeting with foreign ministers of the military alliance, emphasised that he expected the rift would be discussed at the July meeting in Ankara, making the summit one of the more important" in Nato's 77-year history. Continue reading...
Backlash grows among European staff against radical cuts to pay off Covid-era debt, with some accusing council of colonial attitude'The historic Palacete building at 31 Paseo del General Martinez Campos in Madrid's upmarket Chamberi district has been home to the British Council in Spain for about 70 years.About 5,000 students each year pass through its 35 classrooms, learning English, attending exams, and forging cultural ties with the UK. Over the years that is hundreds of thousands of Madrilenos (people from Madrid), while it also serves as a centre for the expat community. Continue reading...
by Taz Ali (now) and Tom Ambrose (earlier) on (#75T0C)
Andy Burnham talks up his local credentials and says: This is not business as usual, this is not more of the same'On transport, Burnham says I like my buses" (they were taken back under public control in Greater Manchester in 2023) but he was woeful about the cost of rail journeys.364 is the cost of an anytime return from Wigan North Western to London Euston. So how can people here connect with the capital and all of the opportunities it's got, if they cannot afford those train fares? We need to use rail re-nationalisation to reduce those train fares and make them affordable to people again.Change to the economy, change to education, change to housing, change to transport, change to care, and yes, to make it all possible. Change to politics. Continue reading...
Jane Fonda, Bruce Springsteen and Joe Biden are among the names paying tribute to host of cancelled late-night showShare your favorite memories from The Late Show With Stephen ColbertCelebrities, politicians and New Yorkers have paid their respects to Stephen Colbert as The Late Show aired its final episode on Thursday.The long-running chatshow, which started back in 1993, was cancelled last year by CBS, purportedly because of a financial decision. But many believed it was a result of the network's increasing closenesss with Donald Trump, whom Colbert regularly criticised. Continue reading...
Judge says it is disappointing' there will have to be retrial of prisoners accused over Lostprophets singer's deathThe jury in the trial of two prisoners accused of murdering the disgraced former Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins has been discharged for legal reasons.The judge at Leeds crown court told jurors on Friday that there would be a retrial. Very reluctantly, I'm going to discharge you and the case will have to be retried," said Mr Justice Hilliard. Continue reading...
by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#75T39)
British army is 80-90% short of drones as military exercise aims to build on European defence strategyDeep in Charing Cross underground station, in the disused terminus of the Jubilee line, a secret Nato command bunker has this week been discreetly at work. Dozens of mostly British soldiers were engaged in a war game defending Estonia from a Russian invasion in 2030, unbeknownst to commuters and tourists bustling above.The secret chambers are behind two sets of normally locked, metal double doors. A red glow at the bottom of the escalator beyond is the first sign of troops below; next are mocked up newspaper covers pasted over ageing adverts. A British Nato force has deployed to Estonia they blare, in response to a Russian massing of troops on the border. Continue reading...
Targeting of foreign activists drew global outrage from governments that have not acted on violence against Palestinian detaineesIsrael's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has made abuse of detained Palestinians something of a macabre calling card, celebrating cruelty publicly and often on video.During his time in office, violence including rape, extreme hunger and humiliation have been normalised in Israeli jails. Rights groups say detention centres have become torture camps" for Palestinians. Continue reading...
Italy's president leads tributes to campaigner who spent four decades promoting sustainability and local cuisineCarlo Petrini, the journalist who founded the Slow Food movement in protest against the arrival of the first McDonald's in Italy, has died aged 76.Petrini, who had been diagnosed with prostrate cancer in recent years, died in his home town of Bra in northern Italy's Piedmont region. He had led Slow Food, which since 1986 has campaigned against fast-food culture by promoting sustainability and local cuisine, as president until 2022. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#75T2E)
Almost 19m drivers expected to hit roads over long weekend, with heaviest traffic likely to be on Friday and SaturdayAn especially hot late May bank holiday weekend is expected to bring even more traffic to the roads than usual at the start of the half-term break taking place in parts of the UK, motoring organisations have warned.With temperatures forecast to pass 30C in places by Monday, coastal roads are predicted to be among the busiest, with long queues expected towards seaside resorts and the Port of Dover, where delays in border checks are compounding the holiday rush. Continue reading...
US secretary of state says president would like a negotiated agreement with Havana but likelihood is not high'The US president, Donald Trump, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Thursday again raised the spectre of military intervention in Cuba, a renewed threat that takes on greater weight a day after the administration announced criminal charges against Raul Castro, the island's former leader.Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years, doing something," Trump told reporters when asked about Cuba during an event in the Oval Office. And it looks like I'll be the one that does it. So I would be happy to do it." Continue reading...
Hung Cao's comments are latest blow to Taipei after Donald Trump recently cast doubt over US's enduring supportUS arms sales to Taiwan have been paused" to ensure the US military has enough munitions for its Iran operations, according to Washington's acting navy secretary, in the latest blow to Taipei after a series of comments by Donald Trump.When asked at a congressional hearing on Thursday about a $14bn (10.4bn) weapons packageawaiting Trump's signoff for months, Hung Cao said: Right now we're doing a pause in order to make sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury [the Iran war] - which we have plenty." Continue reading...
Keith Ervin, 59, was charged with assault after he told a student God - you're hot' at a public meeting in AprilAn east Tennessee school board member who told a teenage girl, God - you're hot," on video at a public meeting in April has been charged with assault.State prosecutors on 18 May charged 59-year-old Keith Ervin under a Tennessee statute that outlaws intentionally or knowingly [causing] physical contact with another [that] a reasonable person would regard ... as extremely offensive or provocative". Continue reading...
Party apologises for posts by Chris Kennedy about attack on Jewish ambulances and says he has withdrawn for personal reasonsThe Green party's candidate for the Makerfield byelection has withdrawn from the ballot less than 12 hours after being announced.Chris Kennedy was announced to be running in the seat for the Greens on Thursday morning, but nine hours later the party said he had dropped out, citing personal and family reasons". Continue reading...
The Kusuma Neolithic Hall, based on Durrington 68 site, will allow visitors to step back in time' into the lives of those who built the stone circleIt may have been a place for ceremony or a barn for pack animals. It could have been a place for weary labourers to rest their heads. Or perhaps there was no building at all.English Heritage has unveiled a 7-metre-high reconstruction of what a 4,500-year-old Neolithic hall may have looked like at Stonehenge, offering visitors a glimpse into the lives of the prehistoric builders who raised the world's most famous stone circle. Continue reading...
Gardeners tending to allotments were terrified to see animal roaming wild after mauling one of its keepers - but critics have long been concernedA tiger on the loose among garden allotments. Panicked residents summoning armed police ill-equipped to deal with a dangerous predator. And, behind it all, Germany's self-proclaimed Tiger Queen" and her private menagerie.In startling scenes over the weekend in the eastern town of Schkeuditz, near Leipzig airport, the mix proved fatal for a big cat named Sandokan and left a keeper seriously injured. Continue reading...
In today's newsletter: As the polls tighten around Benjamin Netanyahu, the coming months may redefine Israel's political order without resolving its most entrenched conflictsGood morning. On Wednesday, Israeli legislators took the first steps towards dissolving parliament and calling fresh nationwide elections. Leading leftwing Knesset member Yair Golan hailed it the beginning of the end of the worst government in Israel's history." Benjamin Netanyahu has spent 20 of the last 30 years as Israel's prime minister, the last four of which have seen him helm a far-right coalition.Under the incumbent government, settlement building in the illegally occupied West Bank has accelerated, while many international humanitarian NGOs have been banned from the Palestinian territories. Following Hamas's killing of 1,200 Israelis on 7 October 2023, Netanyahu has orchestrated a campaign of violence in Gaza, wiping out more than 10% of the population, and flattening the strip in what the UN has declared a genocide. Netanyahu remains on trial for three counts of corruption.UK news | The parents of a girl critically injured in the Southport attack were allowed no more than 12 counselling sessions after the atrocity, while others described a woeful" lack of support.UK politics | Sadiq Khan has blocked a 50m Metropolitan police deal with the controversial US tech company Palantir, sparking a bitter row between the London mayor and Scotland Yard.Israel | Israel has said it has deported all the foreign activists it seized from a Gaza-bound flotilla, after a global outcry over their treatment in custody.UK news | Single-sex toilets and changing rooms in England, Wales and Scotland must exclude transgender men and women, according to a new code of practice from the equalities watchdog.Ukraine | Ukrainian drones hit the Syzran oil refinery more than 800km inside Russia, setting it on fire, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#75SXM)
Thames Valley police believe more witnesses may be out there in inquiry into alleged misconduct in public office by former princePolice investigating Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor want witnesses to contact them if they believe they have information about alleged sexual misconduct, corruption, fraud or the sharing of confidential information involving the king's brother.In a sign of the potential expansion of their unprecedented investigation", Thames Valley police vowed to rigorously investigate claims against the former Prince Andrew. Continue reading...
by Patrick Butler Social policy editor on (#75SXP)
Charity Commission inquiry into William Blake House in Northamptonshire resulted in rescue planA group of accidental activist" families have succeeded in their efforts to secure the future of their children's care home after uncovering serious alleged management failures that took the charity to the brink of bankruptcy.The families launched a campaign after discovering that William Blake House, a residential learning disability care home charity in Northamptonshire, owed 1.5m in unpaid taxes, had paid its former chair 1m in fees, and was close to bankruptcy. Continue reading...
Spending committee finds MoD most wasteful and also points to cancelled schemes such as Rwanda and StonehengeCancelled government projects such as the Rwanda deportation scheme and the road tunnel under Stonehenge are wasting billions of pounds of taxpayer money a year, parliament's spending watchdog has found.About 6.6bn was written off by government departments last year alone - state spending that did not achieve its intended objectives or create any value for the taxpayer, the public accounts committee said. Continue reading...
Up to 70% of girls may be in early or forced marriages but law now makes divorce impossible if husbands disagreeChild marriage appears to have been legally recognised for the first time by the Taliban in Afghanistan, as activists say shameful" new laws make it almost impossible for girls and young women to seek divorce against their husbands' will.There are no official statistics on forced and underage marriages in Afghanistan, but activists say it has risen at an alarming rate in recent years, driven by the ban on girls being in education after the age of 11. Continue reading...
by Tobi Thomas Health and inequalities correspondent on (#75SSB)
Cancer Research UK figures show number diagnosed with most serious form of skin cancer has risen above 20,000 for first timeThe number of cases from the most serious form of skin cancer have reached a record high across the UK, according to analysis by a leading cancer charity.Melanoma cases in the UK have risen above 20,000 for the first time ever, with 20,980 people being diagnosed with the form of cancer in 2022, according to analysis of the latest figures by Cancer Research UK. Continue reading...
Political editor Pippa Crerar and features writer Simon Hattenstone top major categories and Malak A Tantesh wins for Gaza reportingThe Guardian's political editor, a prominent features writer and a brave young Palestinian reporter are among those to have been honoured at the Press Awards in London.The awards celebrate the best journalism across all news media publishers distributing in the UK. Continue reading...
The Oscar-winning actor's role in the mythical drama has been attacked by Elon Musk and others on the far rightOscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong'o has responded to far-right criticism of her role in Christopher Nolan's adaptation of The Odyssey.In the big-budget film, out in July, the star plays Helen of Troy alongside cast members including Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and Zendaya. Continue reading...
by Miranda Bryant Nordic correspondent on (#75SMP)
Prime minister says he will boycott opening, as protesters hold signs saying stop USA' and shout go home'Hundreds of people protested against the opening of a new US consulate in Nuuk after comments by the US special envoy to Greenland that it was time for Washington to put its footprint back" on the Arctic territory.Many Greenlandic politicians, including the prime minister, said they would not attend the official opening on Thursday. Continue reading...
Policy adviser Jen Reed says tech-facilitated abuse has become increasingly prevalent' and calls for its inclusion in Domestic Abuse ActThe Domestic Abuse Act fails to fully recognise the danger of technology-facilitated abuse, such as location tracking or hidden stalkerware, a Lords select committee has heard.Tech abuse has become increasingly prevalent" and very commonplace now within a domestic abuse context", said Jen Reed, the head of policy at University College London's Gender and Tech Research Lab, during an evidence session. Continue reading...
Boys physically overpowered and then filmed attacks on teenage victims in separate incidents in HampshireThree teenage boys convicted of knife-point rape and other serious sexual offences against two teenage girls in Hampshire have not been given custodial sentences because the judge said he should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily".The boys, who were aged between 13 and 14 at the time of their offences, physically overpowered and sexually assaulted the girls, who were aged 14 and 15, in separate incidents two months apart. Continue reading...
Music is banned on Wednesdays on island of Stromboli where Rolling Stones frontman was celebrating wrapping a filmPolice on an Italian island stopped a party attended by Mick Jagger - because music is banned on Wednesdays.The Rolling Stones frontman was on Stromboli, the volcanic island among Sicily's Aeolian archipelago, for the production of Three Incestuous Sisters, a film by the Italian director Alice Rohrwacher in which he stars. Continue reading...
Senior staff will get 2.5% pay rise with bonuses for highest performers in plan to rewire' civil serviceSenior civil servants will get bonuses for exceptional performance for the first time under a new system that Darren Jones, the Cabinet Office minister, said would reward the doers, not the talkers".Jones, who is also chief secretary to the prime minister, said most civil servants would get a 3.5% pay rise, but senior staff would have a base increase of 2.5%, with 1% held back for bonuses for the highest performing officials. Continue reading...
The UK's largest police force says Palantir is the only company that can supply what it needs. Is that worth the increasing controversy that comes with them?
by Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor on (#75SFN)
Burnham and Streeting's latest stances confound caricatures of left and right as party faces electoral bindThe Labour party has seemed to inhabit three parallel worlds over the past fortnight.There is a prime minister celebrating good news on the economy and lower migration figures and breezily insisting he will fight the next election, but with his party intent on deposing him. Continue reading...
Nato chief delivers speech in Sweden as he hints at further changes to US military commitments to EuropeJust as Pavel was speaking in Prague, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was pursuing escalation of the conflict between the two countries.It's quite a claim given (checks notes) Russia's continued and relentless invasion of Ukraine for years.Ukraine has demonstrated not only determination and heroism, but also unbelievable capacity to adjust, to innovate, to change.It is something that we in Europe have lost through many regulatory measures that are necessary in peacetime, but of course in conflict you have to be ... flexible and achieve the results in shortest possible time. ... Continue reading...
Surging demand, low reserves and reduced Middle East exports predicted to cause global crunch by AugustOil markets will enter red zone" by July and August as stocks dwindle before the summer travel season amid a shortage of fresh oil exports from the Middle East, the executive director of the International Energy Authority warned on Thursday.Fatih Birol added that the most important solution to the Iran war energy shock was a full and unconditional reopening of the strait of Hormuz. Continue reading...
Singer Skye Newman also highlights how becoming a performer is becoming inaccessible to those without moneyThe music industry risks becoming a more hostile place for working-class artists, musicians including Tinie Tempah and Skye Newman have said.Without work to save small music venues that act as cradles to nascent music scenes - as well as specific efforts to find and promote talent from diverse backgrounds - the industry is likely to miss out on the next big thing, they argued. Continue reading...
Michael Thomson admitted to breaching a restraining order by selling a range of luxury itemsThe former boss of collapsed investment firm London Capital & Finance (LC&F) has been imprisoned for six months for contempt of court, after admitting breaching a restraining order by selling luxury items including horse saddles and a hot tub.Michael Thomson's actions were characterised by Judge Milne as an attack on the administration of justice. Thomson was sentenced alongside his wife, Debbie, who also admitted to the offences but whose six-month sentence was suspended for a period of two years. Continue reading...
Prime minister tells reporters reporters he would campaign personally in the contestThe Home Office has also published asylum figures this morning. These show that the number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in hotels stood at 20,885 at the end of March 2026, down 35% year-on-year from 32,326. The Press Association says:It is the lowest figure since data was first reported in 2022, Home Office figures show.The total had climbed as high as 56,018 at the end of September 2023.Brits are leaving on a massive scale and non-EU immigration remains far too high. Mass immigration undermines our society and low wage immigration is bad for the economy. British families feel it in lower wages, longer waiting lists for public services and housing shortages.Labour must go further and reform indefinite leave to remain before their hard-left flank forces them to abandon it altogether. Continue reading...
The monarch may have thought the role would keep her favourite' second son out of trouble. How wrong she wasThat Queen Elizabeth II was very keen" for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to take on a prominent role in the promotion of national interests" as a trade envoy in 2001 demonstrates the fierce support the late monarch always gave her second son.Knowing he was the spare", and undoubtedly acutely aware of the pitfalls of that position - her sister, Princess Margaret, had struggled to find her own role - a mother's instinct would be to protect, so far as she could. Continue reading...
Satirical project is viral sensation and outlet for protest on social media as it taps into young people's frustrationIt began as a satirical online project after a high court judge compared unemployed young people to cockroaches. Now millions of young Indians are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration.A parody political party with the insect as its symbol has exploded across India's social media by turning absurdist humour into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach - an insect known for its ability to survive harsh conditions - as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. Continue reading...
Nottingham university hospitals trust says 11 members of staff dismissed and 14 others given written warningsAn NHS trust has sacked 11 staff members who illegally accessed the medical records of the victims of the Nottingham stabbing attacks.Valdo Calocane killed two 19-year-old students, Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, and Ian Coates, a 65-year-old caretaker, and attempted to kill three other people in the city in June 2023. Continue reading...
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