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Fears of resurgence of HIV/Aids amid loss of access to PrEP drugs as at least 40 people arrested in toxic' climateA witch-hunt" is under way in Niger, where dozens of people have been arrested for homosexuality in the west African state following the introduction of a new penal code earlier this year.Up to 40 people have been arrested and 16 men, including high-ranking military officials, have been imprisoned across the country, according to local media. Continue reading...

Final vowel in words such as happy, baby and chilly varies clearly by social class across the cityPronunciation of the happy vowel" is one of the key indicators of social class in Mancunian accents, researchers have found.A sociolinguistic study, led by Lancaster University, found that the final vowel in words such as happy, baby, chilly and city - known to linguists as the happy vowel" - varies clearly by social class across Manchester. Continue reading...

Security footage images show a friend went to Simon Peter Carman's apartment in Pattaya, Thailand after reporting Thunchanok Donhomla missingThe friend of the 17-year-old girl allegedly murdered in Thailand reported her missing to police and then visited the condo of the Australian man charged over her death.Security footage images obtained by the Guardian shows the friend at the apartment of Simon Peter Carman. The footage is time stamped 1.49pm on Friday 26 June, although it is not clear whether the time stamp was added manually. Continue reading...

Proposal has been put to cabinet to allow AI companies to mine content, in exchange for investment and $350m fund to compensate artists, sources say

In today's newsletter: A country already in crisis since the removal of its leader earlier this year by the US, now has to find a way to rebuild with little state presence in evidenceThe shaking seemed to come from nowhere. In a moment captured by fishers off Venezuela's Caribbean coast, two earthquakes struck seconds apart. Plumes of dust appear where buildings once stood in the recording as the camera rises and falls with the swell. The men rapidly head for the shore in search of their families. I'm shaking," says the cameraman.Since the quakes struck last Wednesday, the search for missing loved ones has not stopped for scores of Venezuelans. Officially, more than 1,700 people have died. But tens of thousands remain missing: desperate relatives are walking up and down streets lined by rubble and collapsed buildings with photos of those they cannot find, asking for help.World news | A child has been rescued from the rubble in Venezuela, six days since the country was hit by devastating twin earthquakes.UK politics | Andy Burnham will have to find an extra 4.7bn for defence in his first budget, after Keir Starmer announced a 298bn defence investment plan (Dip) without having fully identified how it will be funded.US politics | The US supreme court has upheld the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, affirming that nearly all people born on US soil are American citizens and rejecting a central pillar of Donald Trump's anti-immigrant agenda.UK news | The European media group Axel Springer has completed its 575m takeover of the Telegraph, ending years of uncertainty over the future ownership of the 171-year-old titles.US news | Nine matches in the World Cup group stage were played amid potentially dangerous heat and humidity, a Guardian analysis shows. Continue reading...

Track record of Welsh Water shows public ownership is not the answer to all the woes in the utilities sectorGood news for Andy Burnham: one of the original 10 water privatisations from the Thatcher-era has returned to public ownership already. Thanks to a complicated turn-of-the-century corporate saga, Welsh Water, serving 3 million people, converted to not-for-profit status in 2001. It has no shareholders. Financial surpluses go straight back into keeping bills down and looking after your water and beautiful environment", as the website blurb puts it.How's it going? After a quarter of a century without dividend-hungry shareholders to feed, has the model proved its superiority? Not exactly. Welsh Water usually has high scores on customer trust metrics but its performance on bills and spills tends to be middle of the pack. Continue reading...

Nearly 100 academy chief executives earn more than 200,000 a year, and at least one more than 500,000The era of academy school leaders in England receiving banker-style salaries" and hefty annual increases may soon be over, with the government to introduce limits on executive pay.Nearly 100 academy chief executives earn more than 200,000 a year, with pay in academy trusts equating to anything from less than 5 a pupil to more than 150. Only a quarter of the high-earners were women. Continue reading...

Ahead of England's first knockout game of the World Cup, Love Letter to England celebrates what English people have in commonWhat does it mean to be English? Ahead of England's first knockout game of the World Cup, Ian McKellen and the award-winning playwright James Graham have released a short film that attempts to answer that deceptively simple question.The film, Love Letter to England, explores and celebrates what people across the country have in common. It draws on early contributions to the National Conversation, a UK-wide initiative that began last month. Continue reading...

Case stems from 2022 lawsuit challenging FEC's enforcement of limits on coordinated party expenditures'

Keir Starmer earlier unveiled a 15bn plan but said defence spending cannot be bottomless pit' and MoD has to spend better'Keir Starmer is speaking now.They are at Malloy Aeronautics, a firm that designs heavy-lift drones, and Starmer says this morning they showed him one of the heaviest drones he had ever seen.Last year, I made the decision in the national interest to reprioritise aid spending towards defence and achieve the biggest uplift in defence spending since the end of the cold war.That was the right choice because the world has changed. National security is economic security. Continue reading...

More than 2,000 anti-foreigner protesters march through Durban city centre as the arbitrary deadline passes for undocumented migrants to leave the countrySouth Africa was holding its breath on Tuesday as mass anti-immigration protests were held across the country. They come after a weeks-long campaign against foreigners that has seen at least four killed and tens of thousands fleeing for safety.In the coastal city of Durban, where violence had been expected, the streets were unusually quiet and shops were shuttered as tension hung thick in the air. Continue reading...

Four men arrested and charged for allegedly taking part in jackpotting' scheme targeting ATMs at rest stops along I-95A group of four robbers netted more than $500,000 in an elaborate jackpotting" scheme targeting ATMs at rest stops along Interstate 95 in Connecticut, federal prosecutors in the state have alleged.The men targeted at least nine cash machines during a 10-day spree in August, according to a press release on Monday by the US attorney's office, which charged the four with a range of federal offenses. Continue reading...

Cristina Guarda says delegation was denied access to cells in offshore detention facility, at which six people have attempted suicideAn Italian MEP has questioned whether the Italian government is trying to hide the truth" about conditions at an offshore migrant detention centre in Albania after a delegation she was part of said they were prevented from conducting a full inspection.Cristina Guarda, from Italy's Greens and Left Alliance (AVS), said staff at the Italian-run facility in Gjader had refused to give MEPs from the Greens/EFA group key information, such as how many people were being held at the centre, and that they had not been allowed to access their cells. Continue reading...

Scott Bessent says he encourages them to be good actors' after Trump ranted about prices not dropping fast enoughScott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, issued a veiled warning to oil and gas companies to lower their prices on Tuesday, a day after Donald Trump berated those retailers on social media for not dropping their prices fast enough and demanded they target $2.50 a gallon.I would encourage them to be good actors, especially in the 250th anniversary, because we're watching," Bessent said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday morning, addressing big oil, independent and international retailers. Continue reading...

Authorities are still searching to identify the suspect of an alleged assassination attempt of a Ukrainian business tycoonin MadridMore than 1 million undocumented migrants and asylum seekers have applied to regularise their status in Spain under a government programme to harness and defend the benefits of immigration at a time when most European countries are pulling up the drawbridge.The fact that more than 1 million people submitted applications shows just how necessary this recognition of rights and responsibilities was." Continue reading...

ONS confirms 0.6% GDP growth in first quarter, with services, production and construction sectors expanding

Researchers think people with greater muscle density in torso area, who are also less likely to die prematurely, are those who exercise morePeople with strong chest and back muscles are less likely to have a heart attack or die prematurely, analysis using artificial intelligence suggests.Researchers led by the University of Edinburgh used AI to examine hospital scans of 1,722 patients, aged mostly in their 50s, who had chest pain. Continue reading...

The prime minister in waiting is seeking an interim base in the city centre before Ancoats site is completed in 2028A civil service base that is under construction in Manchester has been earmarked for Andy Burnham's No 10 North, according to reports.The northern centre of government will be in Ancoats, on the outskirts of Manchester city centre, but the site is not due to be completed before 2028, according to the Manchester Evening News. Continue reading...

Billionaires' wealth grew by 25% on average in the year ended in April, research from Swiss bank UBS finds

Police allege the 75-year-old tried to meet someone he believed was a 15-year-old boy after explicit online chats

Exclusive: Staff at Rockstar Games hope move can be completed before release of GTA VI scheduled for NovemberThe makers of Grand Theft Auto are attempting to gain official union recognition after mass sackings last year.Video game designers and other employees at Rockstar Games are working with the IWGB Game Workers Union to try to secure unionisation before the release of GTA VI scheduled for November. Continue reading...

Government fears repeat of anti-migrant violence in 2008 that led to looting and resulted in deaths of 62 peopleSouth African authorities have deployed police units to towns and cities around the country before planned demonstrations against undocumented foreign nationals.Security personnel were seen patrolling the central business district in Johannesburg, the economic capital, where many shopkeepers decided not to open on Tuesday. Trucks and other assets belonging to the South African National Defence Force were also present, according to local media reports. Continue reading...

Acoustic recording of a song titled The World Is Not Enough included in wide-ranging auction featuring formative Coldplay recordingsA lost demo recording of a song Coldplay's Chris Martin reportedly intended for 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough is going up for auction, alongside other recordings from the band's earliest years.For the auction by Wax Poetics, the British producer Chris Allison is making available an archive of recordings the band made prior to their Allison-produced second EP The Blue Room, released in October 1999. Continue reading...

Expected next prime minister focuses on restoring faith in politics, cost of living and devolution in major speech

Report says once-in-a-generation changes needed to tackle why such children are lowest-performing large demographicHigh-performing primary and secondary schools in England should be encouraged to admit more disadvantaged pupils from white working-class backgrounds to help reverse a continuing crisis in underachievement, an independent inquiry has said.The independent inquiry into white working-class educational outcomes concluded the current education system was not set up to serve white working-class children and families". Continue reading...

Mangione, accused of killing health executive Brian Thompson, has pleaded not guilty in state and federal casesLuigi Mangione 's Manhattan federal court trial related to to the murder of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson is scheduled to start in January 2027.Mangione stands accused of the 4 December 2024 killing of Thompson on a New York City street. He faces murder and weapons charges in his state-level case, and stalking counts in the federal proceedings. Continue reading...

Mark Rutte stressed need for military investment ahead of long-awaited UK funding announcement on TuesdayNato's secretary general has said he is confident Andy Burnham will stick to the alliance's long-term spending commitments, and that the man expected to be the UK's next prime minister would recognise that rearmament can spur economic growth.During a visit to London, Mark Rutte said he did not expect the UK to meet an alliance target to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035 in one big step" when its long-delayed defence investment plan was published on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Legal and labor experts say Trump v Slaughter decision upends settled constitutional law in favor of loyalty test'As a reality TV show host, Donald Trump rose to fame with the catchphrase: You're fired!" On Monday, the US supreme court handed him - and all future presidents - the power to fire leaders of independent agencies or commissions, overturning 90 years of court precedent curbing executive power.While Trump celebrated the decision on Truth Social as a big win", labor advocates, unions, and consumer advocacy groups criticized the supreme court decision on the case, Trump v Slaughter, and warned of the long-term impacts for democracy in the US.Court rules Trump can fire leaders of independent agenciesCourt rules geofence warrants require constitutional privacy protectionsCourt rules Trump's firing of Lisa Cook from Fed was unconstitutionalCourt upholds law to count mail-in ballots arriving after election dayCourt rejects Trump's bid to appeal $5m E Jean Carroll Continue reading...

No damage reported in 4.6 magnitude aftershock; At least 1,450 people are known to have died in initial quakes but number is expected to riseIn an update to X, El Salvador's president has said that after hours of intensive work rescuers have freed Aaron Levi Cantillo Vargas, 21, who was trapped under a building in Caraballeda, La Guaira, calling the operation a miracle".This rescue was made possible thanks to the coordinated effort of the rescue teams from Venezuela, Mexico, and El Salvador, who worked tirelessly to reach Aaron," Nayib Bukele wrote in a social media post, adding that the 21-year-old is now receiving specialised medical attention. Continue reading...

Trial begins of Simon Levy, who denies killing Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins and attacking third womanA man who was arrested in connection with the suspected murder of a woman was freed by police and went on to kill another woman four months later, a court has heard.The prosecution said Simon Levy, 40, had previously raped and attacked a third woman, whom he left for dead, and sexually assaulted six others during a series of attacks between January and August 2025. Continue reading...

Two independent reviewers of terrorism legislation call for safeguards for NGOs and journalists before bill becomes law this weekBritish foreign correspondents could be at risk of prosecution if they use sources within state-backed groups in countries such as Iran under national security legislation being rushed through parliament this week.David Anderson, the UK's former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has warned that unless the bill is amended it could accidentally pull journalists working in danger-zone countries into prosecutions for terrorism. Continue reading...

Team hope 30 of hours of footage held by three countries will be enough to bring to life film-maker's visionMore than 70 years after he shot the first few frames, Orson Welles's ambitious project to put Don Quixote on the big screen may finally be completed thanks to a consortium of European film archivists.Oja Kodar, the American film-maker's partner and collaborator, has given her blessing to the project led by archives in France, Spain and Italy, along with the Munich film museum, to produce a coherent film out of 30 hours of footage scattered among them. Continue reading...

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Subsidiary of FTSE 250 company says Coffee Studio's phrase too similar to its Eat Drink Meet' trademarkWhen Tahir Mehmet, the owner of an independent coffee shop, tried to register three simple words", Eat Drink Work, as its slogan, he had little idea it would pitch him into a legal battle with one of the UK's largest hospitality groups.The application in relation to the Coffee Studio, which has two London cafes, has been opposed by a subsidiary of Mitchells & Butlers, whose brands include Toby Carvery, Harvester, All Bar One and O'Neill's, which says it is too similar to its Eat Drink Meet trademark. Continue reading...

Dozens of civilians reported dead by Taliban after strikes launched following militant attack in KarachiPakistani airstrikes in three eastern provinces of Afghanistan killed 36 civilians and wounded 163 others, the Taliban government's deputy spokesperson has said as attacks between the two countries showed no sign of abating.Pakistan's information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said the operations on Sunday night were aimed at a terrorist group his country blamed for a deadly militant attack in Karachi that killed three security personnel over the weekend. Continue reading...

Melissa McIntosh's comment comes after Angus Taylor's claim Morrison government breached trust'

Judge says no legitimate forensic purpose' to former Liberal staffer's subpoena requesting footage, ahead of his Queensland trial

Jacinta Allan resists calls for royal commission into state's $100bn Big Build infrastructure project as pressure mounts following new reports

British-born, older men among those most likely to have disease found only postmortem, say researchersOne person a week dies with undiagnosed and therefore untreated tuberculosis in England, a study has found.British-born, older men were among those most likely to have TB diagnosed only after death, researchers said, suggesting healthcare workers could be overlooking the possibility of the disease in these patients. Continue reading...

Show at Martin Gropius Bau gallery in Berlin is biggest ever celebration of an East German female artist in a state museumGabriele Stotzer remembers the days when she had to decide: Am I buying a sausage, or film for my Super 8 camera?"Stotzer was one of the most radical artists in communist East Germany, and her desire to create was born in defiance of and in spite of the material conditions and oppressive restrictions of the GDR regime. Continue reading...

NAO inquiry follows suspension of payments after erroneous records that claimants had emigratedAn HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) anti-fraud crackdown that stripped 23,000 families of their child benefit failed to adequately consider" the policy's impact on claimants, an official report has found.The report by the National Audit Office followed HMRC's decision to suspend payments after flight records provided by the Home Office purportedly showed thousands of parents had emigrated. Continue reading...

Mallorie Jane Roberts, 23, found with gunshot wounds on Sunday evening with her partner arrested at the home

Greens and David Pocock accuse industry of using programs and sponsorships to build social licence', push for parliamentary inquiry

At least seven people have died in water-related incidents during record-breaking June temperaturesThe body of a 15-year-old boy has been recovered from a reservoir near Manchester, as police renewed warnings about the dangers of swimming in open water during soaring temperatures.Greater Manchester police said officers had been called to reports of a boy getting into difficulty in the water near Cowbury reservoir in Stalybridge at about 6.30pm on Saturday. A body was recovered later that evening, and was identified as the missing teenager. Continue reading...

The Australian Electoral Commission is examining if party breached laws in its $6m public funding claim after the last election, documents show

Simon Peter Carman, 46, has denied the charges against him

Sussexes trip to Britain in balance after government declines request for taxpayer-funded securityThe Duke of Sussex is understood to be reconsidering plans to bring his wife and children to the UK next month after his request for taxpayer-funded police protection was rejected.Prince Harry and Meghan were planning their first trip to Britain as a family in four years for events related to the Invictus Games, due to be held in Birmingham in July. Continue reading...

Vice-president appeared on Bill Maher's show hours before more military strikes were exchanged in strait of HormuzJD Vance said on Friday that the US wins either way" regarding negotiations with Iran, pointing to what he called the destruction of its nuclear program and diminishment as a country.If we make the final deal, then great," the US vice-president told HBO's Bill Maher. If we don't make the final deal, their nuclear program is still destroyed. They're still much weaker as a country, so my attitude is America wins either way." Continue reading...