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The agreement is a great breakthrough', the president says in response to media questions

Legal challenge to King's College London research study claimed it could harm participants but was rejectedA clinical trial of drugs that can delay puberty can go ahead after a high court judge threw out a legal challenge on Friday.Campaigners had launched the attempt to halt the planned research into puberty blockers, to be run by researchers at King's College London (KCL), on the grounds that they believed it could harm the children taking part. Continue reading...

Pedro Sanchez decries violation of territorial integrity' as other EU countries criticise Madrid over incidentAt least 57 people have died trying to reach the Spanish enclave of Ceuta after as many as 50,000 migrants entered the tiny territory from Morocco in what Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, called a violation of Spain's territorial integrity".The huge influx, which took place over the course of just 24 hours, overwhelmed the city of 85,000 people, triggered a political crisis for Madrid and led to a mixed reaction from other EU countries, including calls for Spain to be suspended from the Schengen free-movement zone. Continue reading...

Data by one test-maker shows a positivity drop, but rate could be influenced by number of people taking test

The measure will impact people travelling by plane or boat between the two countriesSpanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez is now in Ceuta, accompanied by interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska.He first visited the Tarajal border crossing, and is now talking to officials from local authorities, border and police services. Continue reading...

Duetting stars surpass record set in 1953, when crooner Frankie Laine hit the top with I BelieveSam Fender and Olivia Dean have scored the longest running UK No 1 single in history with Rein Me In, beating a record that has stood since 1953.Back then, the UK singles chart had been running for less than a year and contained just 12 songs when I Believe, a bombastic ballad by US crooner Frankie Laine, hit No 1 and spent a total of 18 weeks on the chart. Continue reading...

Two-time Oscar winner was to take on role of vampire-hunting antihero but said project is no longer happeningThe two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali has confirmed that his Blade reboot is no longer going forward.The star of Moonlight and Green Book had been attached to play Marvel's vampire-hunting antihero in 2019. The role had originally been played by Wesley Snipes in three films between 1998 and 2004. Continue reading...

Emergency crews say situation remains dynamic' as more than 100 firefighters battle Dunwich Heath blazeA wildfire near Britain's biggest nuclear power station has caused total devastation" to one of the UK's most important landscapes, as fire crews said the situation remained dynamic".More than 100 firefighters have been battling the blaze on Dunwich Heath, near Leiston, on the Suffolk coast since Wednesday evening. The fire service said on Friday afternoon the situation was stabilising but remained a major incident" that was dynamic and potentially changeable". Continue reading...

The chancellor says it will give businesses and families some of the stability they need to plan for the future'The construction of a new Chinese super-embassy" in London, which is set to be built near the Tower of London, can go ahead after a high court challenge against the decision to grant planning permission was dismissed, PA Media is reporting.The Royal Mint Court Residents' Association (RMCRA) brought legal action against the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Continue reading...

Ombudsman finds Homes NSW acted unreasonably and recommended additional payment for distress and suffering

Rescuers say four bodies found in search for team caught in Broad Peak avalanche, after trackers showed rapid descentThe world-renowned Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja - a former British Special Forces member - is among 10 climbers caught in a deadly avalanche on Pakistan's Broad Peak.Rescuers on Friday said four bodies had been found and efforts were under way to retrieve them despite the harsh weather. Two of the dead have been identified: Pur Bahadur Gurung, a Nepali citizen, and Nadhira Alharthy, who was the first Omani to climb Everest. Continue reading...

US president hails breakthrough but Israeli far-right minister says only solution' is encouraging emigration and destroying Hamas'

UK prime minister is the first head of a major nation to call on the under-pressure Fifa president to step down

Exclusive: Danielle Kirton calls on Ed Miliband to help her get answers about why evacuation order came too lateThe bereaved daughter of a British couple who died in a Spanish wildfire is calling on Ed Miliband to get answers from Spain's government about why her parents were not told to evacuate until it was too late.Severe wildfires have burned across Spain and France since early July, killing people, destroying thousands of homes and forcing more than 300,000 people to flee. Continue reading...

During her first visit to Ghana, Dame Sarah Mullally expressed regret and said the controversial fund symbolises the Christian belief in repentanceAt a former British castle where thousands of enslaved Africans were held before being shipped across the Atlantic, the archbishop of Canterbury expressed lament" for the Church of England's involvement in transatlantic chattel slavery and reaffirmed her commitment to a controversial 100m fund for affected communities.Dame Sarah Mullally made the comments on Thursday during a visit to the Cape Coast castle, a 17th-century fortress that was built by Swedish traders, but occupied by the Danish and the Dutch, before the British seized it in 1664. Continue reading...

The Royal Mint Court residents' association tried to fight decision to grant planning permission

Trio set up Swift Partners for the acquisition, allowing supermarket to focus on core food businessSainsbury's has agreed to sell the Argos retail chain for 120m to allow it to concentrate on its core food business.The supermarket announced on Friday it was selling the catalogue shopping business to a trio of retail veterans, a decade after buying the company for more than 1bn. Continue reading...

Boom in solar farms and home installations in first half of 2026 began shortly after start of US-Israel war against IranGreat Britain has recorded more new solar power installations in the first half of this year than in any six-month period since 2011, as households turn to rooftop panels to help cut their energy bills.An analysis of the government's official figures shows that Great Britain added 142,536 solar installations in the first six months of the year, putting it on track to top last year's record solar additions. Continue reading...

As the death toll rises to almost 1,500, and with a vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain potentially still months away, health workers face a battle to slow the outbreakThe latest numbers of confirmed cases of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has made this latest outbreak the fastest growing in the known history of the virus.At 3,360 confirmed cases, the disease is now affecting people in five provinces in the east of the DRC, with 1,487 deaths recorded, representing an overall case fatality rate estimated at about 45%, according to Congolese health officials. Health responses to the outbreak have been badly hampered by conflict in many of the affected areas. Continue reading...

Price of an average home now 277,542, up from 277,484 the previous month but lower than in May, says Nationwide

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M Group's lawyer tells inquiry while the firm's directors may have done business with Gatto' they were not frontmen' for him

Robert Assaf separately tells anti-corruption inquiry money funnelled through lobbying firm to create maximum benefit from a tax perspective'

Scheme brought in up to 500 foreign-trained doctors a year and was seen as example of British soft power'The NHS has scrapped a longstanding scheme that let overseas doctors boost their skills in UK hospitals and was seen as an example of British soft power".Senior doctors have criticised NHS England's decision to axe the Medical Training Initiative, under which 400 to 500 foreign-trained doctors were given placements in Britain every year. Continue reading...

Fernando Alexandre's push to digitise marking process deemed a failure with some students and parents contemplating legal actionPressure is growing on Portugal's education minister to resign amid student and teacher protests over his handling of this year's national school exams.Fernando Alexandre is accused of failing to take responsibility for what critics say is an unprecedented and chaotic school exam season affecting children aged 14 to 18, prompting student protesters to call for him to be flunked". Continue reading...

She Plays to Win face losing one of their female players after being told team must include a maleThe UK's only all-female chess team have been promoted to the game's top tier - only to be told they will have to add a man to their squad.She Plays to Win Lionesses A Team have fallen foul of a rule designed to boost female participation in the sport. Continue reading...

Exclusive: ADF personnel who were discriminated against for being LGBTQ+ are owed a national apology, federal government told

Leftwing Democrats are having their moment in the sun, with Zohran Mamdani in New York, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and endless calls for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for president in 2028. Has Democratic socialism shifted from the political fringe to the mainstream? And can this group lure back the all-important swing voters?Jonathan Freedland speaks to Bhaskar Sunkara, president of the Nation magazine, founding editor of Jacobin and author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme InequalitiesArchive: AP, ReutersWatch Jonathan Freedland on our new Politics Weekly YouTube channelSend your questions and feedback to politicsweeklyamerica@theguardian.comHelp support the Guardian. Go to theguardian.com/politicspodus Continue reading...

Campaigners worry politicians will have moved on by time of elections in which Marine Le Pen is expected to challengeAs dozens of forest wildfires burned across France this week amid the summer's fourth brutal heatwave and increasing air pollution, some wondered whether voters' first-hand experience of the climate emergency would change the political debate ahead of next year's presidential election.The Green leader, Marine Tondelier, who cut short a tour of France on medical advice that at seven months pregnant she should avoid breathing smoke-filled air in the south-west near a huge wildfire in Gironde, said the political class still had its head in the sand. Continue reading...

Queensland police fine driver of another car that allegedly caused Yaris to swerve before it hit kerb and catapulted into air - and busA Queensland driver has been fined after being involved in a stunning crash that saw a car become airborne and then stuck in the side of a bus.The drama unfolded at Rocklea in Brisbane's south on Wednesday evening. A blue Toyota Yaris hit a traffic island and was catapulted into the air before smashing into the side of the council bus. The back of the car was left protruding from the bus. Continue reading...

One Nation leader's how can you tell me there are good Muslims?' remarks were the subject of complaints, but police say the matter has now been finalised

Local leaders say plan will transform funding so English regions no longer rely on Whitehall handouts for projectsEngland's regional mayors will be able to break out of the death grip of the Treasury" by borrowing to invest in big projects under transformational" plans to shift power out of Whitehall.For the first time, mayors will keep a share of income tax generated in their area from 2028, as well as business rates totalling tens of millions of pounds by April 2027. Continue reading...

Makers of unreleased $45m film Fortitude sue after hard drive stolen from streamer's Los Angeles officeNetflix is being sued for $105m over the theft of a hard drive including an unreleased Nicolas Cage war movie.The streamer's Los Angeles office was the target of a theft involving a number of hard drives, one of which contained a copy of second world war spy thriller Fortitude. Continue reading...

CRS officers funded by UK tried to stop boarding of boat, on day four asylum seekers died trying to cross ChannelFrench riot police funded by UK taxpayers used teargas on asylum seekers in an attempt to stop them from boarding a boat in which three women were later found dead, a charity has claimed.Footage and photographs seen by the Guardian show CS gas canisters being fired towards groups of people on Plage du Braek near Dunkirk at 4am on Thursday. At 6am, three women were found dead in a boat near the same beach. Continue reading...

Figures show hot, dry, windy conditions in EU are 43% more severe than the average over last 20 yearsFire weather in the EU has broken records for severity for this time of year, data shows, as firefighters race to extinguish blazes across the Mediterranean.Inflamed by carbon pollution, the hot, dry and windy weather across the EU from the start of the year until the end of July has been 43% more severe than the average for the same period over the last two decades, data from the European Forest Fire Information Service (Effis) shows. Continue reading...

Yemeni sources say Saudi Arabia is preparing sea and possible land attack to break chokehold on oil exports through Red SeaSaudi Arabia is preparing for a major military offensive against the Houthis by sea and possibly by land in central Yemen, Yemeni sources believe, in a move to break the chokehold on its oil exports through the southern Red Sea.Saudi forces have been seen withdrawing from the east of Yemen in what could be preparation for a land offensive. At the same time, Riyadh is trying to organise a naval coalition to protect shipping from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab strait. Continue reading...

Strike on Terminal Autonomy plant appears to be first time in the war that Moscow has targeted a US companyA drone factory in Kyiv destroyed by a Russian ballistic missile on Friday was owned by a US corporation registered in Delaware, in what appears to be the first time Moscow has targeted a US company in the conflict.Terminal Autonomy makes precision deep-strike" drones with guidance systems that are resistant to Russian jamming signals, according to a person familiar with the company. Continue reading...

UK's highest court gives permission for Huda Ammori to challenge court of appeal rulingThe co-founder of Palestine Action has won permission to challenge the ban against the group at the UK's highest court.The direct action group was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in July last year but its co-founder, Huda Ammori, has been fighting to have the ban overturned amid a mass civil disobedience campaign. Continue reading...

In first quarter of 2026 returns for breaches of licence conditions rose 31% creating new pressure on prison placesMore people were recalled to prison than were released during the first three months of 2026, the first time on record the recall rate" has surpassed 100% in England and Wales.Between January and March 2026, 12,977 people were released from prison while 13,193 people were returned to prison for breaching their licence conditions, up 31% from last year, new Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data showed. Continue reading...

There is a resource there. When people are struggling, we can't ignore that,' the prime minister says when asked about his conversation with Donald TrumpQ: [From ITV's Romilly Weeks] You say that Reform UK followed all the rules in relation to donations. But why did George Cottrell give $2m to his mother shortly before she made substantial donations to the party?Jenrick said Reform was certain all the rules were followed. Any questions for Cottrell would have to be directed to him, he said.It does seem curious that in this case the police have chosen not to take action.We'll see whether they take action against the individual who posted the original tweet, who wore the T-shirt. I'm hearing today that the police may have closed that investigation as well. [See 9.20am.] Continue reading...

Split vote comes as Iran war is rekindled and oil price climbs back above $90 a barrel

Shares in Rolls-Royce jump by 5% after it lifts earnings guidance, while BAE Systems also upgrades profit forecastsRolls-Royce and BAE Systems are expecting higher profits as governments around the world increase their defence spending.Both companies lifted their earnings guidance on Thursday morning, citing commitments from governments to raise investment in defence systems. Continue reading...

Central Command says strikes aimed at diminishing Iranian military while mediators say talks are continuing

Polish PM confirms the missile that crashed in Poland was a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile and says he is in touch with EU and US leadersPoland's defence minister Wadysaw Kosiniak-Kamysz confirms it's most likely" it was a Kh-101 air-launched cruise missile.That's the most probable hypothesis," he says. Continue reading...

Union calling for two paid breaks a day in what it says is punishing schedule for Storehouse order an object' workersStaff at the V&A's Storehouse site in east London have voted overwhelmingly to strike in a dispute over what they say are inadequate toilet and hydration breaks.They will join staff across V&A sites in London who on Wednesday also voted to strike in a wider dispute over pay, working conditions, and the museum having declined to seek living wage accreditation. Continue reading...

Polish PM visits scene of crater thought to have occurred during deadly wave of attacks on Ukraine

Bank's wariness about inflationary pressures from the conflict lie behind decision to hold steady at 3.75%

Company self-reported offences that led to tax authority's largest out-of-court settlement for such breachesAirbus has been fined 6.4m in the UK after the European aerospace company admitted to multiple breaches of rules designed to stop sensitive goods such as military hardware falling into the wrong hands.The company, which sits at the heart of the European defence industry, said it had paid the settlement to the UK's tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs, after self-reporting breaches that occurred before November 2022.Failing to keep accurate records of transfers of controlled technology as per the conditions of three of their Open General Export Licences (Ogels).Multiple occasions failures to keep registers in relation to Ogels.Failing to keep accurate records contrary to the conditions of one of their Ogels.A failure of licence conditions on a standard individual export licence (SIEL). Continue reading...

The book, Antiquities of Athens, was handed back to Kiama library by a man who found it bricked into a wallAn Australian public library has had a book returned an estimated 150 years late after being found behind a wall during a home renovation.The book, Antiquities of Athens, published in 1858, was returned to the library in the seaside town of Kiama, south of Sydney, by a man who had found it inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace Continue reading...