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Unite, Unison and GMB suspend industrial action in Scotland to consult members on improved' dealThe strikes by refuse and recycling workers due to disrupt the Edinburgh festivals this week have been called off, after a new pay offer was made.Edinburgh faced a repeat of the strikes during the festival in 2022, with mounds of uncollected bin bags, overflowing recycling bins and unsightly food-covered pavements. Continue reading...

Dail members call for investigation after far-right leader gave false country of birth to Canada's immigration officersIrish parliamentarians have called on their government to investigate how an Irish passport was obtained by Tommy Robinson, who has been accused of inciting riots from abroad.The Luton-born far-right leader travels on an Irish passport in his real name - Stephen Yaxley-Lennon - and was believed to have qualified for it via his mother, an Irish immigrant to Britain. Continue reading...

Certificate lowered from 18 to 15 after 1980s classic is deemed relatively discreet in terms of gore and injury detail'The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has defended its decision to change the certificate of horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street from an 18 to a 15, saying that its audience research showed strong support for older content to be reclassified in line with modern standards".The classic 1980s horror, featuring the malevolent, razor-gloved Freddy Krueger who stalks and murders teenagers in their dreams, was given an 18 certificate on its first UK release in 1985, a designation confirmed on a subsequent cinema release in 2013 and a series of home entertainment releases. However, after a new application from its studio Warner Bros, the certificate was changed to a 15 on 1 August, ahead of a home entertainment reissue in September. Continue reading...

Tory leadership hopeful and former home secretary says government has shown poor early decision making'Phillip Inman and Graeme Wearden report:The UK should not be seduced" into thinking the battle to calm inflation is over despite price rises easing to the Bank of England's target, according to an interest rate setter at the central bank. Continue reading...

John O'Brien received 15% of former client's estate after encouraging her to sign will he drafted months before her death, Vcat finds

Witnesses say more than 200 people were killed in artillery and drone attack that targeted civilians fleeing fightingMany dozens of Rohingya people, including children, were killed in an artillery and drone attack that targeted civilians as they tried to flee Myanmar last week.Civilians were trying to escape violence in Maungdaw town, Rakhine state, by crossing the Naf River into Bangladesh when they were targeted last Monday. Videos shared on social media, which appeared to have been taken in the aftermath of the attack, showed bodies and bags strewn across the ground. Continue reading...

Family pays tribute to Courtney Mitchell, who was found seriously injured and later died in hospitalA man has been charged with murder after a woman was found seriously injured at a property in Ipswich and later died in hospital.Courtney Mitchell, 26, was discovered by Suffolk police at an address in Burrell Road shortly after 7pm on 6 August. Continue reading...

Eighty-eight soldiers had been seconded in the battle to contain blazes with firefighting effortsAFP reports from Penteli:Thick smoke from burning trees filled a small square in Penteli where local resident Mariana Papathanasi said they could only pray that their houses would be saved.There is still a strong fire. Some houses were burned after midnight and we are trying to protect our local restaurant," the 49-year-old supermarket employee told AFP. Continue reading...

Airport says ETA scheme introduced by Conservatives is devastating' for competitiveness

Billionaire built business from bicycle components empire that takes in UK hotels

Bear, which was eating granola bars that come as part of class's emergency earthquake kit, was safely removedA California school teacher got a shock when she discovered a bear had broken into her classroom to eat the granola bars that come with the class's emergency earthquake kits.Local TV station KGET reported that Elaine Salmon of Peak to Peak charter school in Pine Mountain Club, about 90 miles north of Los Angeles, was in the school main office printing out paperwork when the bear launched its daring raid. Continue reading...

More than 670 firefighters working to control blaze that has formed 12-mile front on outskirts of Athens Europe live - latest updatesFirefighters are battling to contain a massive blaze moving like lightning" on the outskirts of Athens, with authorities evacuating people from towns, villages and hospitals as flames rip through trees, homes and cars.Propelled by gale-force winds, the wildfire had formed a 12-mile (20km) front by Monday despite superhuman" efforts by forest commandos and volunteers overnight. Continue reading...

Medics demand better safety measures as civic volunteer' arrested after attack on female trainee doctor in KolkataDoctors at government hospitals in several Indian states have gone on strike in a protest after the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata on Friday.The 31-year-old woman was attacked at the state-run RG Kar medical college, where she was a resident doctor, after she went to rest in a seminar room following dinner with colleagues. Her brutalised body was found with multiple injuries and an autopsy confirmed sexual assault and homicide. Continue reading...

Chair of Hunting Kind says he has built legal case to obtain same protection as Roma and LGBTQ+ peopleA pro-foxhunting group says it has prepared a legal case to try to prove that hunters are an ethnic minority whose hunts should be protected under equality laws.Ed Swales, the chair of Hunting Kind, claims he has been advised by a leading human rights lawyer that hunters unequivocally qualify for legal protection under the UK Equality Act 2010. Continue reading...

April Jones tells Perth court she started counselling Reynolds after reports of Brittany Higgins' accusations senator mishandled her rape complaint

Sarah Hanson-Young wrote to Meta demanding to know if social media giant was test-running a news ban

Nathaniel, Stacey and Gareth Train shared paranoid delusions' and did not intend to be captured alive, inquiry into Queensland shootings told

Family share medical records of Calocane's mental illness with BBC which they say show missed opportunities to prevent attacksA doctor warned that Valdo Calocane's mental illness was so severe he could kill someone, three years before he stabbed three people to death in Nottingham, his medical records reveal.Calocane's family, who were shown the records only after he was sentenced to indefinite detention in a high-security hospital for the attacks, have criticised the missed opportunities they believe could have prevented the killings. Continue reading...

Labor faces resistance from backbenchers and the Greens, who are calling for a complete ban

Embattled French tycoon to raise funds through deal with billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal's conglomerate

Stephen Patrick Andrew Kayser, 68, accused of 49 offences in Queensland almost 40 years ago

Secretary of defence also announces deployment of guided missile submarine, as Hamas appears to push back against resuming ceasefire negotiationsThe US has ordered a strike group of fighter jets and navy warships to accelerate its deployment to the Middle East, as the region braces for possible attacks by Iran and its allies after the killing of senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah.The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, ordered the Abraham Lincoln strike group to accelerate its deployment to the region, while at the same time announcing the deployment of a guided missile submarine, after speaking with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant. Continue reading...

Fellow Olympians cheer breaker Rachael Gunn as she joyfully re-enacts some of her viral moves on the streets of Paris

Emergency services evacuate hundreds from DoubleTree by Hilton as aircraft owner says flight was unauthorised'

Troop numbers sent into Russia are in thousands, source says; cooling tower at Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility reportedly damaged by fireUkrainian sources have indicated that thousands of troops have been committed to its incursion into Russia's Kursk province, as Moscow and Kyiv traded accusations about a fire at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant 250 miles to the south.A Ukrainian security official told the Agence France-Presse that the aim of the incursion was to destabilise Russia and string out Russian forces with light, fast-moving attacks. It remains unclear how sustainable the operation will be in the medium term amid Kremlin threats that it will be snuffed out using Russian reserves. Continue reading...

The environment watchdog has promised to crack down on products made from recycled construction waste. But will it actually implement change?

Government sets out measures to help households and businesses as it cracks down on failing utilities firmsConsumers in England and Wales will see the amount of compensation they receive for poor customer service from their water supplier at least double under new government measures to crack down on failing utilities companies.Setting out tough new rules to support households and businesses, the government said minimum compensation payments would be doubled for highly disruptive incidents, including when the water supply is interrupted, or when appointments with customers are missed. Continue reading...

Discovery of 20-year-old Leticia A Castillo's body marks third reported death in national park since 31 JulyA 20-year old woman was found dead in the Grand Canyon following a multi-day search.In a statement, the National Park Service (NPS) announced that it had located a body below Twin Overlooks along Desert View Drive on Tuesday. The body was transported to the rim and transferred to the Coconino county medical examiner's office. Continue reading...

Whole neighbourhoods are being evacuated from around capital as firefighters mount huge effort to put out blazesGreek authorities have warned people to stay indoors with their windows closed" as 400 firefighters battled to contain blazes on the outskirts of Athens that were forcing the evacuation of entire communities.Huge clouds of billowing smoke had by mid-afternoon on Sunday darkened the skies above the capital as 10 groups of forest commandos" backed by water-bombing aircraft, helicopters and fire engines tried to douse flames fanned by gale-force winds. Volunteers had also joined the fight near the village of Varnava about 35km (21 miles) north of the city. Continue reading...

Displaced residents uncertain where to flee to as IDF prepares to fight Hamas in city in southern Gaza StripThousands of people have fled the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis after the Israeli military warned of a new operation to flush out Hamas militants that it says have regrouped there.In al-Jala, a neighbourhood in the south of the city that the Israel Defense Forces had previously designated a humanitarian zone, residents on Sunday packed their belongings, uncertain where to seek refuge. Israel said rockets had been fired from the area. Continue reading...

Surrey police refer themselves to watchdog after incident on Sunday morning involving man in his 20sA man in his 20s is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot by police, triggering an investigation by the policing watchdog.Surrey police have referred themselves to the Independent Office for Police Conduct over the incident, which took place in Woking shortly after midnight on Sunday morning. Continue reading...

Christopher Steele says officials will look very carefully' at online instigators such as Tommy RobinsonThere is clear" Russian involvement in the far-right riots and security services will be looking closely at the instigators, a former head of the MI6 Russia desk has said.Christopher Steele, the ex-spy who compiled a notorious dossier on Donald Trump's relationship with Russia, said that security officials would be looking very carefully" at the people encouraging anti-immigration riots in the past fortnight. Continue reading...

Michelle O'Neill and deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly call unrest in Co Down and Derry disgraceful'Northern Ireland's first minister and deputy first minister have condemned a racist attack on a mosque in County Down and last night's violence in Derry.The mosque was attacked at about 1am on Saturday, when graffiti was sprayed on the front door and walls of the building in Greenwell Street. Continue reading...

Maria Corina Machado in hiding as more than 1,300 people are detained in post-election clampdownVenezuela's main opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, has accused the country's strongman president, Nicolas Maduro, of unleashing a horrific campaign of terror" in an attempt to cling on to power.Two weeks after Maduro's widely questioned claim to have won the 28 July election, human rights activists say he has launched a ferocious clampdown designed to silence those convinced his rival Edmundo Gonzalez was the actual winner. More than 1,300 people have been detained, including 116 teenagers, according to the rights group Foro Penal. At least 24 people have reportedly been killed. Continue reading...

Amira Al Shammari says they have no other options as she describes horror of 21-year-old Dina's deathA mother from a stateless Arab minority say she and her family have no choice but to try to cross the Channel again despite the death last month of her eldest daughter on a previous attempt.Dina Al Shammari, 21, was travelling with her parents and three teenage siblings when she was crushed to death in an overcrowded dinghy off the coast of Calais on 28 July. Continue reading...

Severe cases of far-right violence need to be recognised as terrorism and not thuggery', write Rusi researchersThe recent riots in the UK, sparked by the Southport stabbings, have exposed troubling double standards in how society perceives and responds to far-right violence compared to Islamist extremism. This disparity calls for a serious redefinition of how we address far-right extremism, recognising it as the grave threat it truly represents.Far-right motivated violence is often classified as mere thuggery" or hooliganism, while similar acts motivated by Islamist extremism would is likely to be swiftly labeled as terrorism. This inconsistency undermines the perceived severity of far-right threats and hinders the political will to take equivalent action.Emily Winterbotham, Claudia Wallner and Jessica White are researchers at the Royal United Services Institute. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Defence thinktank Rusi says rightwing violence often classified as mere thuggery' by politicians and prosecutorsThe UK has a two-tier approach" to extremism that fails to treat far-right attacks as seriously as Islamist ones, a leading thinktank has said.The Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) says rightwing violence is often classified as mere thuggery" by politicians, prosecutors and the security services. Equivalent acts by Islamists would swiftly be labelled as terrorism", it says in an article in the Guardian. Continue reading...

Thousands of Palestinian residents and displaced families leave as Israel steps up offensive in southern Gaza Strip Continue reading...

About 50 people were rescued by helicopter on Sunday morning, French authorities have saidTwo people have died attempting to cross the Channel in a dinghy, according to the French authorities, bringing the death toll since mid-July to at least nine.The maritime prefecture for the Channel in Calais issued a brief statement confirming the deaths and have said Jacques Billant, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, was going to the scene to supervise the rescue operations. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Poll findings prompt calls for ministers to impose sugar tax-style levy on companies to combat obesityA majority of people in Britain want new taxes imposed on companies that make either junk food or ultra-processed foodstuffs to help tackle the obesity crisis, polling suggests.The findings prompted calls for ministers to help people eat healthier diets by putting a sugar tax-style levy on sweets, cereals, pizzas and other products containing too much salt or sugar. Continue reading...

Report shows 23% increase in attacks on animals using weapons in 2023 compared with previous yearRising rates of animal abuse in England and Wales are being fuelled by social media, with perpetrators sharing videos and photos of dead and injured wildlife and pets, animal welfare charities have warned.Experts also raised concerns about the proliferation of other less extreme forms of online animal cruelty, such as taunting pets for funny" reactions on TikTok and Instagram. Continue reading...

Proposal, which would force public sector workers to report undocumented people, decried as utterly inhumane'Doctors, social workers and librarians are among those in Sweden who have sounded the alarm over a proposal being explored by a government-appointed committee that would force public sector workers to report undocumented people to authorities.The proposal - which has been referred to as the snitch law" by some - was among the many measures included in a 2022 agreement struck between four rightwing parties in the country. The deal paved the way for a coalition government involving three centre-right parties with parliamentary support from the far-right anti-immigration Sweden Democrats (SD). Continue reading...

Generous present for former PM will feature in a landmark exhibition of the artist's London masterpiecesFinding yourself in opposition in the House of Commons can be uncomfortable for those who once led the nation, especially for someone also credited with a vital military victory. So it was for Winston Churchill. But in 1949 he was consoled with the extraordinary gift of a French impressionist masterpiece: Claude Monet's depiction of the Palace of Westminster, wreathed in heavy mists.This generous present, now worth many millions, was accompanied by a note to Churchill wishing that the fog that shrouds Westminster", ruled then by Clement Attlee's Labour party, would soon lift. Continue reading...

Four other occupants of Toyota HiLux taken to hospital, where one woman in her 30s died

The Treasury has made it clear that reform will be needed as Rachel Reeves begins pivotal review of public financesCabinet ministers have been ordered to search for cost-cutting reforms and prepare for difficult decisions over spending, as chancellor Rachel Reeves and her team formally begin the process of compiling a pivotal review of public spending.The chancellor has already made clear that she is planning to raise taxes and take tough decisions on welfare and spending in what will be a crucial autumn for the new Labour government. She will present her first budget and a spending review setting departmental budgets for this year and next. Continue reading...

A 24-year-old man was taken to Hervey Bay hospital but died from his injuries upon arrival, police say

Paapa Essiedu and Stephen Dillane also sign open letter urging theatre to end Royal Bank of Canada's support over its shares in fuel and armsActors including Mark Rylance, Paapa Essiedu and Stephen Dillane have signed an open letter calling on the Old Vic theatre to cut ties with a major sponsor over its links to fossil fuels, the Observer can reveal.Signed by dozens of actors, playwrights, directors and other creatives, the letter calls on the historic London theatre to end links with its principal financial partner, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). The contract is up for renewal this year. Continue reading...

The PM wants the focus to be on first-term achievements and cost-of-living relief but question marks remain over religious freedoms and gambling ads

Bodies of pilot and co-pilot of Voepass aircraft that plunged to the ground, killing all 62 onboard, identifiedBrazilian emergency crews on Saturday recovered the remains of at least 50 victims aboard an airliner that plunged to the ground in the town of Vinhedo, near Sao Paulo, the day before, killing all 62 onboard.The bodies of the pilot and co-pilot were identified, said Dario Pacheco, mayor of Vinhedo, who added that he expected all of the remains to have been recovered by the end of the day. Continue reading...

The runner, who has set a new British record, only took up sport again to stay fit during pandemicGeorgia Bell, an occasional runner during lockdown who made it to the Olympic final of the women's 1500m, set a new British record to take bronze as a rush of success including silvers in artistic swimming and taekwondo took Britain's rivalry with France in the medal table into the last day.At the age of 30, this was Bell's first Olympic appearance but in a lightning quick race in the Stade de France that saw Kenya's Faith Kipyegon set a new Games record, the British runner stayed with the leading pack in the first 800m before finding the strength to kick on in the final leg. Continue reading...