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The shadow housing minister's objection to high-rise flats in his constituency is typical of the dilemmas Keir Starmer, who has pledged to build 1.5m new homes, will faceEvery Wednesday, just before noon, Heavenly Tucker has a flicker of hope. Will today be the day she finally finds her own home? But after waiting more than two years, she is not optimistic when her alarm goes, reminding her to log on to Greenwich council's housing website and bid for whatever properties she can.The 26-year-old cafe manager still lives with her mother; she is single and has no dependants, so is a low priority. Renting privately would mean coming up with 1,300 a month, and even with two jobs she cannot afford that much. Continue reading...

Government funded Parkfield, in Dorset, after unbelievable' lack of due diligence, says expertOne of the government's vaunted free schools, whose site was beset with so many problems it is estimated to have cost 35m, is set to close, having failed to attract enough pupils.Free schools were launched by Michael Gove in 2010, when he was education secretary, with the promise that they would close the attainment gap in England. Continue reading...

PM says Reform leader's comments play into Putin's hands' while Labour leader describes them as disgraceful'

After losing his empire in 2022, the lauded host is opening a new world grand cafe' in London's BayswaterThis month, Jeremy King will open the Park, an all-day restaurant in Bayswater. It is the second of three big 2024 openings for the lauded restaurateur, who was behind the heydays of some of London's most celebrated restaurants such as Le Caprice, the Ivy and the Wolseley.It follows the launch of Arlington in January, King's modern reboot of Le Caprice, once a favourite with the stars from Diana, Princess of Wales to Mick Jagger. Later in the year he'll be reviving another stalwart, Simpson's on the Strand. Continue reading...

Hoda Nagib and her husband had walked 20km in the baking sun in Saudi Arabia while on Mecca pilgrimageHoda Nagib and her husband had walked 20km in the baking sun in Saudi Arabia when she told him that she needed to rest. The couple, who are in their 60s, had just scaled Mount Arafat, along with thousands of other white-robed pilgrims on the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam's holiest city, where temperatures as high as 51.8C have been recorded in the shade in recent days.Nagib's husband left her to perform a ritual known as the stoning of the devil. When he returned she had disappeared, their neighbour Walaa Roshdy explained. Continue reading...

Ex-nurse denies trying to murder infant by tampering with breathing tube at Countess of Chester hospitalLucy Letby suggested the hospital ward where she worked was understaffed as she denied attempting to murder a newborn girl, a jury has heard.The nurse told police the skill mix was probably not right" on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester hospital when a two-hour-old baby suddenly deteriorated in February 2016. Continue reading...

Ex-footballer reportedly struck on the head with butt of a gun and detained in a room while Italy game was on TVThe Italian football legend Roberto Baggio was robbed and beaten at gunpoint in his home on Thursday while watching the Italy-Spain match in the European Championship with his family.A group of at least five armed individuals forcefully entered the villa in Altavilla Vicentina, located in northern Italy, at 10pm local time. Continue reading...

Nick Adderley, who was 15 at time of conflict, found to have lied with arrogant temerity' over service in navyA police chief constable who wore a Falklands war medal despite being 15 at the time of the conflict has been dismissed without notice and placed on the police barred list after being found guilty of gross misconduct.Nick Adderley, the chief constable at Northamptonshire police, exaggerated his military rank, length of service and naval achievements, including implying that he served in the Falklands war, the hearing heard. Continue reading...

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NSW police allege words were said' before Rhyce Harding, 27, was killed in an alleged hit-and-run at Blackett

State department warns such a move could destabilise the peninsula, as South Korea considers arming UkraineVladimir Putin's suggestion that Russia could supply weapons to North Korea is incredibly concerning", a senior US official has said, days after Putin and the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, signed a defence pact that requires their countries to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked.Matthew Miller, a US state department spokesperson, said the provision of Russian weapons to Pyongyang would destabilise the Korean peninsula, of course, and potentially ... depending on the type of weapons they provide ... violate UN security council resolutions that Russia itself has supported". Continue reading...

National Farmers' Federation says the inquiry was rushed and did not fully interrogate proposed change, which will take effect from 2028

A decade after tens of thousands of Yazidis escaped an Islamic State attack many fear return to a home in ruinsThe Iraqi government has been accused of making the survivors of the Sinjar massacre fear for their future once more, almost a decade after the murderous Islamic State campaign that forced tens of thousands of people to flee from their homes.In January, the Iraqi council of ministers set a deadline of 30 July to close 23 displacement camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. The camps are home to about 155,000 internally displaced people (IDP), mostly Yazidis, who were slaughtered, kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery in their thousands at the height of the violence in northern Iraq in 2014. Continue reading...

Total infections caused by small number' of salad leaves grows to 256, with 45 new cases in last two daysAt least 86 people have now been admitted to hospital as a result of an E coli outbreak linked to lettuce, health officials have said.A further 45 cases of E coli infection have been confirmed since 18 June, making the total number of confirmed cases across the UK 256, with those affected having developed symptoms before 31 May, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Continue reading...

Rutte's appointment comes as Ukraine faces pressure from Russian bombardment in eastern regions

A 27-year-old man was allegedly struck down in morning traffic in Blackett after feeling threatened by the vehicle following him

Labor will also overhaul a much-criticised tax break scheme for gaming venues under deal with GreensA default $50 daily limit on poker machine losses is set to be introduced in Victoria, and an overhaul of a much-criticised tax break for gambling venues considered, as part of a deal struck between the Labor government and the Greens.The Greens said they had secured the commitments in exchange for their support of the government's Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation repeal and advisory councils bill. The bill was debated in the upper house on Thursday and passed with the Greens' amendment. It now will return to the lower house.Sign up for Guardian Australia's free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...

Exclusive: heads of prisons say they will no longer be able to accept new inmates very soon' after 4 July electionPrison governors have been warned that jails will be so overcrowded by the second week of July that they will struggle to accept any more inmates, plunging an incoming government into an immediate crisis.The heads of jails in England and Wales were informed by HM Prison and Probation Service officials earlier this month that data pointed to an operational capacity breaking point" only days after the 4 July general election. Continue reading...

After delays in delivery and training pilots and ground staff, Netherlands says Ukraine should get first planes in summerAt a military base in the rural south of the Netherlands, Gen Arnoud Stallmann, a Dutch air force commander, said he expected that at some point this summer, F-16 fighter jets would finally take to the skies over Ukraine.Around this summertime, it is all lining up," he said, speaking in front of two disused F-16s inside a hangar at the base, where a recent programme to train Ukrainian air force instructors in maintenance for the jets had just come to a close. Continue reading...

City shivers through chilliest morning since July 2023 with low of 5.7C -although weather felt even colder

Prosecutors given two months to finalise brief of evidence against Daniel Billings, who is accused of killing his 28-year-old former partner in Forbes

Russian president's trip comes after he signed mutual defence pact with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un

Health Foundation finds current spending plans insufficient and says difficult trade-offs are inevitableThe NHS will need 38bn more a year than planned by the end of the next parliament in order to cut the care backlog and end long treatment delays, political parties have been warned.Labour and Conservative promises on NHS funding fall well short" of what the beleaguered health service needs to recover from years of underinvestment, according to the Health Foundation. Continue reading...

Wooden artwork called Seaview depicting house falling into the sea has been likened to fly-tipped debrisThe art installation - a depiction of a house tumbling into the sea - was created to highlight the threat posed by the climate emergency to British coastlines.But some residents have compared the piece placed on a lawn outside Salisbury Cathedral to a pile of fly-tipped debris or an unlit bonfire and called for it to be removed, saying it is spoiling the view of one of England's most magnificent buildings. Continue reading...

Victorian coroner condemns systemic racism and paternalism' in child protection system after inquest into 17-year-old's death

Judge says it would make a nonsense' of law enforcement conduct commission's role if it was not provided with all relevant material

Avian influenza virus identified as H7N8 strain - different from outbreaks of H7N3 and H7N9 first detected in Victoria a month ago

Council of 50 random citizens decide how to use money given up by wealth-tax campaigner Marlene EngelhornAn inherited fortune given away by an Austrian heiress who shunned her millions will go to dozens of non-profit organisations that work on issues including the environment, health and homelessness, a citizen group tasked to manage the fund has announced.Marlene Engelhorn, a 32-year-old activist who has campaigned for a tax on extreme wealth, announced in January that she would give away the vast bulk - 25m(21.1m) - of the money she inherited from her grandmother. Continue reading...

Chris Marriott, 46, killed by car used as weapon' by Hassan Jhangur when he went to aid of defendant's sister, Sheffield court toldA father-of-two was killed as he tried to help a stranger apparently injured during a feud between two families over a wedding, a court has heard.Chris Marriott, 46, died after going to the aid of a woman lying motionless in the street, a jury at Sheffield crown court was told on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Former footballer also issues public apology to presenter, who sued him over insults a court found to be defamatoryThe former footballer and manager Joey Barton has issued a public apology on the social media site X and has agreed to pay 75,000 to Jeremy Vine, after a high court ruling that calling the broadcaster a bike nonce" on social media was defamatory.The radio and TV presenter sued Barton after the former footballer called him a bike nonce" and a pedo defender" during an online argument on X, formerly known as Twitter, in January and March this year. In May the high court ruled that the social media posts could defame Vine. Continue reading...

Former defence minister is suing Higgins over social media posts Reynolds says have damaged her reputation

Number of rail trips using season tickets now 13%, down from 34% before the pandemicThe use of rail season tickets in Great Britain has plummeted to the lowest level on record, driven by a rise in working from home since the Covid-19 pandemic.The number of rail journeys made by people using season tickets fell to 13% in the year to 31 March, from 15% in the previous year, according to figures from the Office for Rail and Road, the industry regulator. This is the lowest figure since records started in 1986-87. Continue reading...

A court hearing scheduled for Wednesday has been cancelled after Keith Keef' Leech agrees to delete internal company filesAn Australian man has agreed to demands from Tesla to delete confidential internal company files he had posted on social media, just days before the case was due to be heard in court.Guardian Australia first reported that the New South Wales man Keith Keef" Leech had been taken to court by Elon Musk's electric car and clean energy company in January, after he had been posting documents allegedly obtained from the Tesla whistleblower Lukasz Krupski on social media sites. Continue reading...

Singer due to headline Glastonbury embraces risk of backlash over Israeli genocide' post on InstagramThe pop star and soon-to-be Glastonbury headliner Dua Lipa has said she is willing to risk a backlash over political statements after she recently described military operations in Gaza as Israeli genocide".In an interview with the Radio Times, the 28-year-old said she repeatedly checked herself before making a statement, but did so if she felt it was for the greater good" and worth the risk. Continue reading...

Anna Tsivileva, Putin's cousin, appointed as deputy defence minister after four sackedWe have more comments from the daily briefing with journalists attended by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.He was asked about the Ukraine peace summit, held in Switzerland over the weekend, during which western powers and their allies denounced Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine but failed to persuade major non-aligned states to join their final statement.No, it won't spoil them. We will, of course, take into account the position that these countries have taken, this is important to us and we will continue to explain our reasoning to them.Many of them, and this was a common point of view on this event, confirmed their understanding of the absence of prospects for any serious, substantive discussions without the presence of our country ... If we talk about the overall effectiveness of this meeting, it is close to zero. Continue reading...

From tax to transport, health to housing, and immigration - the main pledges in party's contract' with electorate

Rescuers near Italy report 10 bodies found on wooden boat and 50 missing in a separate incident off CalabriaAt least 10 people have died and dozens are missing after two separate shipwrecks close to the Italian coast, rescuers said.Ten bodies were found on Monday in the lower deck of a wooden boat in the central Mediterranean by rescuers from Nadir, a ship operated by the German charity ResQship. The charity said it saved 51 people who were onboard the sinking vessel, which is believed to have departed from Tunisia. Continue reading...

Move is apparent rebuff to far right and attempt to tighten grip on decision-making over Hamas and HezbollahBenjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the Israeli war cabinet that had been overseeing the conflict in Gaza, rebuffing his far-right allies who had been seeking seats, and apparently moving to solidify his grasp on decision-making over the fighting with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah across the Lebanese border.The prime minister announced the move to ministers, saying the war cabinet had been established as part of an agreement in which the moderate politician Benny Gantz and his National Unity party joined an emergency coalition last year. Continue reading...

Science on specific benefits for children's behaviour and thinking is catching up with established wellbeing claims

Exclusive: Revelation of emails to Imperial College scientists comes amid growing concerns about security risk posed by academic tie-ups with ChinaA Chinese state-owned company sought to use a partnership with a leading British university in order to access AI technology for potential use in smart military bases", the Guardian has learned.Emails show that China's Jiangsu Automation Research Institute (Jari) discussed deploying software developed by scientists at Imperial College London for military use. Continue reading...

Analysis by leading experts the Nuffield Trust reveals that main parties' manifestos would squeeze health spendingLabour and the Conservatives would both leave the NHS with lower spending increases than during the years of Tory austerity, according to an independent analysis of their manifestos by a leading health thinktank.The assessment by the respected Nuffield Trust of the costed NHS policies of both parties, announced in their manifestos last week, says the level of funding increases would leave them struggling to pay existing staff costs, let alone the bill for massive planned increases in doctors, nurses and other staff in the long-term workforce plan agreed last year. Continue reading...

Some believe naming convicted children acts as deterrent, while others say it could glorify horrific actsThe guilty verdicts in the trial of two 12-year-olds for killing Shawn Seesahai in Wolverhampton, puts them among the UK's youngest convicted murderers, and leaves the judge with key decisions to make.Before deciding the minimum sentence to impose on the boys, Mrs Justice Tipples will have to decide whether they should be named. Continue reading...

Authorities caught up with woman alleged to have sailed dinghy to off-limits shore after she posted videos about itA Dubai-based influencer has been fined 1,800 for trespassing on an off-limits pink-tinged beach in Sardinia before sharing a series of video clips and photos of her escapade on social media.The woman arrived by dinghy on the shore of Spiaggia Rosa, a beach famous for its pink sand on the tiny Sardinian island of Budelli, allegedly ignoring all the prohibition signs, according to reports in the Italian press. Continue reading...

Move comes after consumer watchdog found banks were using pricing strategies that were highly complex or took advantage of the tendency to set and forget

Socialists, Greens, Communists and France Unbowed to have joint platform with a candidate in every constituencyFrance's four main leftwing parties have agreed to form a New Popular Front" (NPF) to contest the snap election, as the far-right leader Marine Le Pen said she would seek a national unity government" if her National Rally (RN) wins.The Socialist party (PS), Greens, Communists and France Unbowed (LFI), led by the hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, will campaign on a common platform and field a single joint candidate in each of the 577 parliamentary constituencies. Continue reading...

Leader gets second term after winning vote just hours after ANC and Democratic Alliance agreed coalition dealSouth Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa has been reelected by lawmakers for a second term, hours after his African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance (DA) agreed to form a coalition, setting aside their rivalry in a historic governance pact.Ramaphosa won the late Friday vote against Julius Malema, leader of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters, winning 283 votes to Malema's 44. Continue reading...

Farage says his party will gain more than 6m votes in election after survey puts it ahead of Tories for first timeNigel Farage has declared himself the real leader of the opposition" and predicted his Reform UK party will gain more than 6m votes at the general election, after polling ahead of the Conservatives for the first time.At an impromptu press conference in Westminster, the Reform leader said there was a momentum behind his party, and he absolutely" believes he will gain more votes than the Tories. Continue reading...

Julia Hoggett awarded damehood for services to business, while HSBC chair Mark Tucker receives knighthood Business live - latest updatesThe head of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the chair of HSBC are among the business leaders to be recognised this year in King Charles's birthday honours list.Julia Hoggett, a former banker who has been the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange since 2021, has been awarded a damehood for her services to business and finance. Continue reading...

Russian president's new ultimatum comes as foreign envoys meet in Switzerland to discuss western-led peace planVladimir Putin has demanded that Kyiv cede more land, withdraw troops deeper inside its own country, and drop its Nato bid in order for him to end Russia's war in Ukraine.Putin's fresh ceasefire demands were issued as envoys from more than 90 countries, including Ukraine, convene in Switzerland this weekend to discuss a western-led peace plan. Russia is not invited to the conference and the president's remarks on Friday were likely to have been timed as a spoiler to that summit. Continue reading...

Giorgia Meloni appears to recoil from UK PM, who has no formal bilateral meetings with other G7 leaders on day oneRishi Sunak has insisted he was not being snubbed by other leaders after his first day at the G7 summit ended without any bilateral meetings with his counterparts and he had an awkward encounter with Giorgia Meloni.Meloni, the Italian prime minister who is one of Sunak's closest international allies, appeared to recoil from him after they embraced on his arrival in Puglia for the G7 leaders' summit on Thursday. Continue reading...