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Chancellor's supporters urge MPs to back her if Keir Starmer is replaced, saying she is only candidate who can safeguard UK's financesRachel Reeves has launched a rearguard action to save her job as chancellor, telling friends she would like to stay in the post even under a new prime minister.The chancellor's supporters have been urging MPs to back her if Keir Starmer is replaced later this year, saying she is the only candidate who can safeguard the country's finances. Continue reading...

Paperwork supplied by Andrew Crowley, 46, found to be made using printing methods 25 years too modernA fraudster who tried to sell fake ancient statues to Sotheby's was foiled when his bogus accompanying paperwork was found to be written with printing methods that were 25 years too modern, a court has heard.Andrew Crowley, 46, asked the auctioneers to value three Cycladic figures and one Anatolian stargazer statuette that he had inherited from his grandfather, Southwark crown court in London was told on Friday. Continue reading...

Authorities in Orange county say tank holding methyl methacrylate actively in crisis' and urge residents to leaveAuthorities in Orange county, California have ordered the evacuation of 40,000 people over concerns about a chemical leak that threatened to spill or explode.The problem arose on Thursday at a facility owned by GKN Aerospace in the town of Garden Grove, where a storage tank holding methyl methacrylate began off-gassing and threatened to fail. The chemical, which is highly flammable, is used to fabricate resins and plastics. Continue reading...

Xi Jinping urges authorities to spare no effort' in rescue efforts after blast at mine in northern Shanxi provinceThe death toll from a gas explosion at a coalmine in northern China's Shanxi province has risen to at least 90, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday.The gas explosion happened Friday evening at the Liushenyu coalmine in Qinyuan county, while 247 workers were underground, state media agency Xinhua reported. Earlier reports said eight people had been killed, while more than 200 people had been brought safely to the surface. Continue reading...

Australia joins the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand in condemning illegal settlements

The premier is offering 2,000 apprenticeships at the revived State Electricity Commission as part of a pre-election push

Living archive' will mark loss of Northumberland landmark with storytelling, sound and sculpture using saved woodA new artwork will transform preserved wood from the felled Sycamore Gap tree into a living archive" after a public vote.The community arts charity Helix Arts and George King Architects were named winners of the vote on Saturday, after being shortlisted for a National Trust commission in March. Continue reading...

Exclusive: New biography uncovers Frank Hawking's papers in which he lamented that his son had little initiative'In exploring the physics and geometry of the universe, Stephen Hawking became a world-renowned pioneer of black hole theory, writing the bestselling book A Brief History of Time, which has sold more than 13m copies, and inspiring people to look up at the stars and not down at your feet".But, during Hawking's student years and as he approached adulthood, his father was deeply concerned about how his son would turn out. Frank Hawking lamented that he hangs round the house with little initiative and does not study much", according to previously unknown diaries that he had written partly in code. Continue reading...

Councils fix a pothole every 17 seconds - but getting on top of the repair backlog would cost 18.6bn. Why is it so hard to solve a problem that drives the nation crazy?Marsh Street in the historic centre of Bristol is a modest little stretch of road with an office block at one end, a Thai restaurant at the other, and an almighty mess in between.Along its length of 200 metres or so, the tarmac surface of the road is pockmarked with many dozens of cracks, patches, divots and holes. In some spots where the surface has worn away, three or more layers of road structure are exposed beneath. What is a bouncy enough ride in a bus or car is even more of an assault course for cyclists, a number of whom weave carefully down its length as they cut through the city centre. Continue reading...

Prime minister launches impassioned argument in favour of much-maligned reforms announced in last week's federal budget

Lebanon's health ministry condemns attacks as violations of international law; Israel says it struck Hezbollah infrastructure sites and militantsIsraeli strikes in Lebanon killed 10 people, including six paramedics and a child, in the space of 24 hours, Lebanon's health ministry said on Friday, placing further strain on a US-brokered ceasefire. The ministry condemned the attacks as violations of international law.Further airstrikes were reported on Friday night into Saturday. An AFP correspondent in the southern city of Tyre reported hearing two blasts as one building on the outskirts was struck, then another inside the city, sending plumes of smoke into the air. Earlier, officials worked to evacuate people from the neighbourhood, using loudspeakers urging them to leave. Continue reading...

A 42-year-old fled from police before being involved in a two-vehicle crash in Sans Souci, police say

Iran has threatened to impose tolls on shipping, while US demands that Iran hand over its highly enriched uranium may be deferred. Is there an end in sight?Qatar has rushed a team of mediators to Tehran in a sign that talks to open the strait of Hormuz, in return for the lifting of US sanctions and asset freezes, are reaching a climax.The aim would be to sign a memorandum of understanding on the strait that would lead to 30 days of talks on Iran's nuclear programme - so deferring discussion of the US demand that Iran hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Continue reading...

Michael Agzarian was charged despite internal legal advice that the images were political satire', court hears

Former general Petr Pavel says Moscow's testing of alliance's eastern flank should be met with firm lineThe Czech president, Petr Pavel, has urged Nato to show its teeth" in response to Russia's repeated testing of the alliance's resolve on its eastern flank, suggesting a range of options including switching off its internet, cutting off its banks from global financial systems and shooting down jets that violate allied airspace.Speaking to the Guardian in Prague, Pavel called for decisive enough, potentially even asymmetric" responses to counter Moscow's provocative behaviour against the alliance or risk the Kremlin intensifying its actions. Continue reading...

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...

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...

This is a change byelection,' says Labour mayor as he launches bid for Makerfield seat and lays out policy views

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...

Temperatures expected to reach as high as 33C in southern England or Midlands on Monday

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...

Temperatures across Portugal, Spain, France and the UK are expected to exceed 30C on Friday and into next week

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...

The 24.3bn figure comes amid rising cost of pensions as bond market jitters take monthly debt interest to 10.3bn

Unopposed nomination comes seven years after Abbott lost his Sydney seat of Warringah at the 2019 election

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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...

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...

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...

Company founder Steven Marks says US stores will close as it can no longer justify cost of trying to break into crowded market

Federal minister Tanya Plibersek says the group will face same repercussions on arrival in Australia as previous returnees

Several MPs tell Guardian Australia they are keen to see tweaks, and some are engaging directly with treasurer's office

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...

Conservationists say population rebound demands rethink of retention zones that allow thousands of the animals to remain in the park

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...

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...