Ursula von der Leyen visiting Lithuania amid drone incursions as diplomats are called over Russian requests for envoys to leave the Ukrainian capitalBack to Ukraine, the EU has summoned Russia's top diplomat in Brussels over Russian warnings telling foreigners and diplomats to leave Kyiv amid planned new strikes on the Ukrainian capital.EU's foreign policy spokesperson Anitta Hipper said on X:[Russian] threat to foreign citizens & diplomats to leave Kyiv is an unacceptable escalation. @eu_eeas summoned the Charge d'Affairs, calling to stop hitting civilians & [Russia] to engage in genuine peace talks starting with a full and unconditional ceasefire.@EUDelegationUA stays in Kyiv."[The threat] shows once more, actually, one thing that we already knew, that Russia is absolutely not interested in any peace and has a total disregard for all the efforts towards the peace." Continue reading...
by Richard Luscombe and Victoria Bekiempis on (#75WDR)
Democrat Andy Kim says he saw chaos' at the New Jersey ICE facility amid standoff' between protesters and agentsAndy Kim, a Democratic senator, said he was pepper sprayed by federal agents on Monday during a protest at a New Jersey detention facility.Video posted on social media showed Kim receiving help from a volunteer who is seen pouring water in his eyes outside Delaney Hall in Newark, where detainees are reportedly staging a hunger strike against poor conditions and denial of medical care. Continue reading...
by Maham Javaid (now) and Tom Ambrose (earlier) on (#75WAN)
Vote for Republican nomination is latest test of President's grip over GOPAs Texas heads to the polls for the primaries, Trump reminded his supporters to vote for Attorney General Ken Paxton, amid other posts Tuesday Morning.Texas, Vote for Ken Paxton, our Country's BEST Attorney General!" Trump posted. Continue reading...
The British-born conductor will replace Gustavo Dudamel as the orchestra's chief conductorThe Los Angeles Philharmonic has announced that Daniel Harding is to be its next music director.The UK-born Harding, 50, will begin his tenure in the 2027/28 season, with an initial contract for six years. Gustavo Dudamel, the orchestra's music director since 2009, leaves the role in August 2026 - the Venezuelan conductor is heading east to become music and artistic director of the New York Philharmonic, but he will retain close connections with the Los Angeles orchestra as its artistic and cultural laureate. Continue reading...
PM says we are going to act' but does not say which of the options being considered will be adoptedKeir Starmer has said that SNP leaders need to explain why they did not realise that Peter Murrell was stealing more than 400,000 from the party.Asked about yesterday's court proceedings in Edinburgh, where Murrell admitting embezzling money from the party to spend on luxury goods, Starmer said:I think anybody looking at what's happening up in Scotland will be baffled that those at the top of the SNP say they didn't know anything about what was going on, so clearly there are questions that need to be answered. Continue reading...
Jonathan Andic said he was temporarily standing aside as vice-chair of fashion chain after being named a suspect in death of Isak AndicJonathan Andic, son of the Mango founder Isak Andic, is stepping down temporarily as the fashion group's vice-chair after being named a suspect in the investigation into his father's death.In an open letter published on Tuesday, Andic strongly protested his innocence, saying the accusation bore no relation to reality", but that dismantling it" would take a long time. Continue reading...
Some analysts question whether design of Luce, starting at $640,000, lives up to sportscar brand's heritageFerrari's share price has dropped after it revealed a long-awaited first electric vehicle, with a minimalist look created by former Apple design chief Jony Ive that departs from the Italian manufacturer's petrol sportscars.The Luce, starting at $640,000 (545,000), has a range of 329 miles (530km) thanks to its battery capacity of 122 kilowatt hours, the company said, with four motors that can accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in 2.5 seconds, with a top speed of more than 310km/h (193mph). Continue reading...
by Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent on (#75WAR)
Keir Starmer announces review after boys were given non-custodial sentences for rape of two girlsThe court of appeal will review the non-custodial sentences given to three teenage boys for the rape of two girls, Keir Starmer has announced.The boys, two of whom were 15 and one 14 at the time of sentencing, were given youth rehabilitation orders after the judge in the case said he wanted to avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily" and support their reintegration into society. Continue reading...
Five of the deaths were by drowning while two people died competing in sporting eventsSeven people have died in France in an extreme early-summer heat event that is affecting a swathe of western Europe, as France and the UK set record highs for May and temperatures were forecast to rise further on Tuesday.What I can say today is that there have been seven deaths linked directly or indirectly to the heat," a French government spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, told TF1 television, adding that five of the deaths were by drowning. Continue reading...
Sarah Wakefield, Manchester city councillor, to stand for party after initial candidate withdrewThe Green party has announced its new candidate in the Makerfield byelection.Sarah Wakefield, a councillor on Manchester city council, will stand for the party after its initial candidate withdrew from the race. Continue reading...
Temperatures did not fall below 21.3C on Monday night at Kenley airfield in south LondonThe UK experienced a tropical night" on Monday as the record for highest daily minimum temperature in May was broken for the second consecutive day.Temperatures did not fall below 21.3C on Monday at Kenley airfield, in south London, after the UK recorded its hottest May day since Met Office data began, the forecaster said. Continue reading...
Book containing early versions of the Merlin and Grail legends has remained in private hands for 700 yearsIn one illustration, painted on vellum and decorated with gold leaf, the sorcerer Merlin is depicted as a powerful shape-shifter who has transformed into a talking stag. In another, the Knights of the Round Table are shown returning, victorious, from battle.The illustrations appear in one of the earliest manuscripts to tell the tale of King Arthur and the search for the holy grail - a richly illuminated medieval tome which, for more than 700 years, has been in private hands. Continue reading...
Seven years after Lisa Wiese went missing, a police raid on the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light has given her family a glimmer of hopeAs he watched the footage of a convoy of police vehicles driving through the security gates of the headquarters of a religious sect, AbdelRahman Hashem felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe now his two children would get answers to what happened to their mother.The last time the children heard from her was seven years ago. In an email sent from a budget hotel in India, she had written: Mommy loves and misses them so much, so very much ... they are both my best friends and my favorite people in the whole world." Two days later, she disappeared. Continue reading...
In today's newsletter: Our Russian affairs reporter on Vladimir Putin's slipping approval and singular goal - as discontent ripples from wider society to the reachers of the KremlinGood morning. There is little doubt that when Vladimir Putin ordered his invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he did not expect his troops to still be embroiled there in 2026. And he surely never envisaged a scaled-down victory parade in Moscow, stripped of military hardware, for fear of Ukrainian drone attacks on his own capital.Putin has survived dangerous moments before, but with the Russian economy stuttering, his popularity is waning - not only with the public but also with the elites who have underpinned his regime for decades. An undoubted master of survival, the unwritten contract the president has with the Russian people is starting to fray.Middle East | The US has launched strikes on southern Iran in a test of the seven-week long ceasefire, as both sides played down hopes for an imminent peace deal even as negotiators from Tehran began new talks in Qatar.UK politics | Rachel Reeves has instructed cabinet colleagues to award government contracts in four critical industries directly to British companies, making clear her irritation that ministers have been sending too much government business abroad.Scotland | Peter Murrell, once one of the most powerful people in British politics, faces a long prison sentence after he admitted to stealing more than 400,000 from the Scottish National party to fund a lavish personal lifestyle.Cost of living | Higher prices could persist over the summer even if ceasefire talks between the US and Iran bear fruit, consumers have been warned, with economic shock waves likely to be felt for many months to come".UK news | The fierce heat sweeping across Europe over the bank holiday weekend has beaten the UK's all-time temperature record for May, with scorching highs of close to 35C. Continue reading...
Revelation that policing and state agency figures were in secret policymaking group angers victims' groupsThe British security services were involved in formulating the controversial Legacy Act, which offered an amnesty to soldiers and paramilitiaries despite MI5's role in many killings during the Northern Ireland Troubles, it can be revealed.The presence of policing and state agency figures among a secret policymaking group involved in devising the act - a fact established through an investigation by Belfast-based newsletter the Detail and shared with the Guardian - has angered victims' groups already critical of the legislation. Continue reading...
by Adam Fulton, Lucy Campbell, Matty Edwards, Tom Amb on (#75VJZ)
This blog is now closed - our live coverage continues hereEbrahim Rezaei, the spokesperson of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, has said that time is working against the US and warned that Iran does not respond well to threats.In a post on X, he wrote:During the military war, our tactic was an eye for an eye; in the diplomatic war, it is action against action. Do not believe the bluff of the failed president; time is against the Americans.If they want an agreement, they should negotiate; if they want $6 gas, they should stand firm and bluff until the grass grows under their feet. Iran does not bow to force or threats. Continue reading...
Data shows even if Iran war ends, shop price inflation on rise, while only 16% of firms left unscathed by conflictHigher prices could persist over the summer even if ceasefire talks between the US and Iran bear fruit, consumers have been warned, with economic shock waves likely to be felt for many months to come".Disruption to global shipping, coupled with soaring prices for energy and raw materials, have driven up costs for UK companies, with the impact already filtering through to prices paid at the tills, according to fresh inflation figures. Continue reading...
Lack of Pfas regulations raised in parliament after Guardian revealed former Miteni plant bought by Indian companyProtests over the production of cancer-linked Pfas chemicals have spread across India, after an investigation revealed that an Italian factory shut down due to an environmental scandal was bought by an Indian company and partly rebuilt.At the end of last year, the Guardian revealed that the former Miteni plant in Vicenza had been acquired by the Indian company Laxmi Organic Industries. The factory produced Pfas and was shut down in 2018 after being linked to one of Italy's worst environmental contamination scandals. Continue reading...
Former DUP leader faces charges spanning 21 years in case that triggered political earthquake in Northern IrelandThe trial of former Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson for alleged sex offences is set to begin in a case that triggered a political earthquake in Northern Ireland.Donaldson, 63, is charged with rape, gross indecency and other sexual offences spanning 21 years. His wife, Eleanor Donaldson, 60, is charged with aiding and abetting rape and indecent assault and will be subject to a trial of facts. Continue reading...
Director general of World Health Organization urges neighbouring countries to take immediate actionThe World Health Organization has warned that the Ebola outbreak is outpacing response efforts and countries neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are at high risk from the disease.We are urgently scaling up operations, but at the moment the epidemic is outpacing us," said the WHO's director-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as he urged neighbouring countries to take immediate action. Continue reading...
by Ajit Niranjan Europe environment correspondent on (#75VQX)
Scientists say record-breaking heat is a reminder of how climate crisis is affecting livesThe fierce heat sweeping across Europe over the bank holiday weekend has beaten the UK's all-time temperature record for May, with scorching highs of close to 35C.A temperature of 33.5C was recorded at Heathrow airport on Monday lunchtime, according to provisional data from the Met Office, beating the previous May record that was set in 1922 and reached again in 1944. Later in the afternoon a temperature of 34.8C was recorded at London's Kew Gardens. Continue reading...
Brent crude futures down 6% to lowest level in two weeks and stock markets riseOil prices fell below $100 a barrel on Monday and stock markets rose on hopes that the US and Iran are inching closer to a peace deal.Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, were down 6% to $97.43 a barrel, the lowest level in two weeks, with hopes that an agreement to end the near three-month US-Israeli war on Iran can be struck. Continue reading...
Strongly anti-Turkish party doubles its seats although mainstream parties did not see vote crumble as predictedAn anti-immigrant far-right party, inspired by Greece's defunct neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, made the biggest gains in Sunday's parliamentary election in Cyprus.Elam, the Greek National People's Front, which has pushed for the closure of checkpoints on the ethnically split island and is vociferously anti-Turkish, doubled its seats in the 56-member legislature after securing 10.9 % of the vote. Continue reading...
Ciaran Martin says Reform UK leader's allegation over Guardian report on 5m gift entirely unsubstantiated'Nigel Farage's claim that a Russian hack was behind a Guardian report on the 5m gift he received from a crypto billionaire has been described as without any merit" by a former head of the National Cyber Security Centre.Ciaran Martin, founding chief executive of the agency, which is part of GCHQ, said Farage's allegation, if true, would have major implications for UK policy towards Russia but that the Reform UK leader had yet to provide a shred of evidence". Continue reading...
by Chris Osuh Community affairs correspondent on (#75VRM)
Figures raise questions over ministers' plans to raise qualifying period for settled status from five years to 10Higher-earning immigrants are less likely to remain in the UK long-term and could be further deterred from staying by the government's planned crackdown on settlement rights, analysis has revealed.A report from the Migration Advisory Committee's , Who Stays, Who Leaves?, follows about 900,000 journeys between 2014 and 2024. Continue reading...
Links between Trump Organization and Ivanishvili family for Tbilisi skyscraper raise new conflict of interest concernsA Trump Tower planned for the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is to be built on land currently part-owned by the son of the US-sanctioned leader of the country, according to official records.The proposed skyscraper, a joint venture between a local consortium and the Trump Organization, which is managed by the US president's sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, will be on a plot whose current registered owner is the International Charity Fund Cartu. Continue reading...
Monday predicted to be hottest May day on record by large margin, as UK braces for super El Nino' summerTemperatures are expected to hit 35C in parts of England on Monday, in an unprecedented" May heatwave.The Met Office is already predicting that records will be broken. A spokesperson said: Today will be the hottest day in May in the UK in our temperature records, with highs of 35C expected. The current May record is 32.8C. Records are usually only broken by tenths of a degree, making this heatwave unprecedented for the time of year." Continue reading...
Dangers include unintended pregnancies, taking unnecessary medication and missed diagnoses, say expertsMisinformation about perimenopause is putting women at risk of unintended pregnancies, unnecessary medication and missed diagnoses, experts have said.Awareness of menopause and treatments such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been raised by efforts including a prominent documentary by Davina McCall. Continue reading...
Rain overwhelms sewer system in parts of US city, while temperatures in France break May recordNew York City saw flash flooding on Wednesday, as large parts of Brooklyn and Queens received about 2in (50mm) of rainfall in as little as 20 minutes. Officials said the deluge caused water to flow into the sewer system at a rate of up to 6in an hour, quickly overwhelming an aged network that was designed to accommodate just 1.75in an hour.Residents and commuters found themselves wading knee-deep through flood water that flowed with dangerous speed in places. One video showed a woman alighting from a bus losing her footing and being dragged along by the torrent of water. Several major roads were blocked, including the Long Island Expressway, and subway services were disrupted as water spilled into stations. Large amounts of mud and other debris was left behind; videos showed bags of rubbish being swept down streets along with loose litter. Continue reading...
Supporters of Reza Pahlavi, exiled son of the late shah, are clashing with those who oppose a return of monarchyWearing a bucket hat, a blue Adidas hoodie and khaki shorts, Tony Mohraz, also known as 021kid, chest-bumps a friend in front of a memorial wall in Golders Green, in north London.Photographs can be seen behind him of those who were killed protesting against the Iranian regime. As a large lion and sun flag used in Iran before the Islamic revolution is waved overhead, Mohraz starts to rap. Continue reading...
Hitting government's target of getting 80% of workers into jobs would reduce cost of universal credit by 10bnTackling the root causes of joblessness, instead of cutting benefits, is the best way to get the welfare bill down, and polling shows voters support that approach, according to research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.In a forthcoming report, JRF economists show that hitting the government's target of getting 80% of the working age population into jobs would cut the cost of universal credit by 10bn - an eighth of the current bill. Continue reading...
As former Soviet Republic goes to the polls, it finds itself in a strategic tug of war between Russia, the US, Turkey, Europe and AzerbaijanTo describe Yerevan, a charming city of liberal values encased in imposing Soviet architecture, as the centre of the world is a stretch, but Armenia's claim that it can become the strategic crossroads of the landmass of Eurasia is becoming less and less fanciful. As the former Soviet Republic goes to the polls on 7 June for national elections, it finds itself in a five-way tug of war between Russia, the US, Turkey, Europe and Azerbaijan.The interest has in part been sparked by the possibility of an end to Armenia's conflict with its neighbour Azerbaijan - and the chance this represents for Armenia to end its physical isolation and become part of the middle corridor, a vital trade route linking western China and Europe, bypassing both Russia's northern corridor and the Suez canal. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#75VKY)
Radiologists say ballooning' costs reflect staffing failures, forcing a reliance on lower-quality private scan reportsThe NHS is paying private firms record sums to analyse diagnostic scans because hospitals are too busy and understaffed to do the work themselves, research has revealed.The amount being spent on outsourced the interpretation of CT and MRI scans is spiralling out of control" and reflects a short-sighted failure to train enough doctors, ministers are being told. Continue reading...
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