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Liberal leader says third allegation came after he expelled David Van, who says he ‘will fully cooperate’ with investigation and is ‘stunned that my good reputation can be so wantonly savaged’

Rafael Grossi visited the Russian-controlled plant amid concerns for water levels in cooling pools after dam breachThe head of the UN atomic energy agency has said the situation at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine is “serious” and that ensuring water for cooling was a priority of his visit, adding that the station could operate safely for “some time”.Rafael Grossi, of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was inspecting the state of Europe’s largest nuclear plant following last week’s breach in the Kakhovka dam downstream on the Dnipro River. He said IAEA inspectors would remain at the site. Continue reading...

Incident involving semi-trailer truck and vehicle used to transport elderly and disabled people sparks huge emergency responseAt least 15 people are dead in Canada after a crash between a semi-trailer truck and a vehicle used to transport elderly and physically disabled people, according to multiple media reports, as crews mount one of the largest-ever emergency responses in the region.The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in the province of Manitoba said as of Thursday evening, 15 people had been killed in the crash and 10 others taken to hospitals with injuries. Continue reading...

Leader Samantha Ratnam says half of all dwellings in new projects should be public or affordable housing

Report by cross-party MPs criticises previous ‘lack of urgency in addressing market failures’MPs have urged the government to set out its plans to protect households from high energy bills this winter as they said about 1.7 million people, including some of the most vulnerable groups, had been left waiting too long to receive previous support.The public accounts committee (PAC) said that although schemes were introduced quickly, the government “did not have the bandwidth” to make sure help reached all groups in a timely fashion. Continue reading...

Open letter says burden on victims to prove intent leaves door open for perpetrators to claim they were jokingProposals to tackle sexual harassment in the street in England and Wales do not go far enough because the bar for offences has been set too high, charities have warned.The Fawcett Society, Girl Guiding and Refuge are among organisations who say the requirement to prove perpetrators intended to cause alarm or distress undermines the provisions of two bills intended to protect women and girls going through parliament. Continue reading...

Chief executive Amanda Pritchard says that if early results are successful it will be rolled out more widely next yearA blood test which can detect 50 cancers before symptoms start to show could be offered to a million people in a pilot programme from next summer, according to the head of the NHS.Amanda Pritchard, NHS chief executive, said the Galleri test has the potential to “transform cancer care forever”, according to reports. Continue reading...

Child’s death in medical care follows that of 15-year-old Lewis Michael Kirkpatrick, who was found in the River Eden on 27 MayA second boy has died after an incident in which a group of teenagers got into trouble in a river in Cumbria last month.The announcement of the 14-year-old’s death by Cumbria police follows the death of 15-year-old Lewis Michael Kirkpatrick, whose body was found in the River Eden in Carlisle on 27 May. Continue reading...

Edward Argar says government does not intend to change law after case of woman jailed for late abortionAbortion law in England and Wales has been settled by parliament and the government does not intend to change it, a justice minister has told MPs, after a woman was jailed for taking abortion pills after the legal limit.Edward Argar was speaking after opposition MPs secured an urgent question on the 162-year-old legislation underpinning abortion regulations in part of the UK, during which there were cross-party calls for an overhaul. Continue reading...

Official report criticises Tory-run authority’s dysfunctional leadership and says it tried to silence criticsBankrupt Thurrock council recklessly gambled hundreds of millions of pounds on risky commercial investments while covering up evidence of its losses and attempting to silence critics, a devastating official review has concluded.The government-commissioned report published on Thursday said the Tory-run council’s financial collapse in 2022 was the culmination of years of dysfunctional leadership characterised by complacency, denial, and what the review called “unconscious incompetence”. Continue reading...

Privileges committee also details how ex-PM was part of a campaign to abuse and intimidate MPs investigating him

Man held by police after triple knife killings is understood to be Valdo Amissão Mendes CalocaneThe suspect in the Nottingham triple knife killings is a former student at the University of Nottingham named Valdo Amissão Mendes Calocane, sources have said.Calocane, 31, was born in Guinea-Bissau and settled in Nottingham as a child, according to multiple sources. Continue reading...

Women also said to have been in the hold, amid fears 78 so far confirmed dead could rise into the hundredsSurvivors from an overcrowded fishing boat that capsized and sank on Wednesday off the Greek coast in one of the worst disasters in the Mediterranean in recent years have told doctors and police that women and children were travelling in the hold of the vessel.Seventy-eight people have been confirmed dead, but there are fears the number of victims could run into the hundreds. Continue reading...

Khamis Abdallah Abbakar was murdered hours after criticising Rapid Support Forces on televisionSudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been blamed for the assassination and mutilation of a senior government official, amid growing reports of mass killings in the restive Darfur region in the country’s devastating war.Khamis Abdallah Abbakar, the governor of West Darfur, was murdered this week just hours after he gave an interview to a Saudi-owned TV station in which he criticised the RSF and described a “genocide”.
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As anguished family members arrive in Kalamata, search operation continues with negligible progressHope dies last and for Kassem Abo Zeed it was running out fast. Hope was the force that had led him to board a plane from Hamburg and fly to Greece after he heard that a boat carrying his wife had capsized off the country’s southern coast.But by 2pm on Thursday, 36 hours after the blue fishing trawler packed with migrants and refugees had sunk in one of the worst maritime disasters in recent Greek history, hope was fading in a way he had prayed would never happen. Continue reading...

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg says Ukrainian personnel being trained so when planes are delivered, pilots are ready

Connections joins Wordle on website, leading to raised eyebrows from Victoria Coren MitchellIt’s quite the conundrum. Is a new puzzle game launched by the New York Times original, or does it have connections to a long-running BBC programme?Victoria Coren Mitchell, host of the BBC’s Only Connect, floated the question on Twitter in response to the US newspaper’s associate puzzle editor sharing its new game Connections. Continue reading...

Carr will be the first woman to lead the judiciary in the history of the role dating back to the 13th centuryThe most senior judge in England and Wales will be a woman for the first time in history – although uncertainty remains as to whether she will be known as lord chief justice.Dame Sue Carr, an appeal court judge and former vice chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission, will take up the position on 1 October, becoming the first woman in the role which dates back to the 13th century. Only two people – both women – applied for the job. Continue reading...

Berlin prosecutors say investigation against German singer is based on suspicion of abuse after concertsBerlin state prosecutors have launched an investigation into sexual assault allegations against the lead singer of the German metal band Rammstein, Till Lindemann.The prosecutors confirmed to German media that the investigation was based on the initial suspicion of sexual abuse as well as drug-related activity. The announcement follows allegations made by a number of women that they were picked out to have sex with Lindemann at concerts. Continue reading...

Annual event headlined by Vladimir Putin described as ‘totally toxic’ since full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Supporters of ex-PM have voiced fury at ‘vindictive’ privileges committee’s finding that Johnson deliberately misled parliamentSupporters of Boris Johnson have pledged to target both Conservative members of the privileges committee and Tory MPs who endorse its findings for deselection, as the aftermath of the report prompted vicious internal infighting.One ally of the former prime minister said they expected Bernard Jenkin, the most senior Tory on the committee, which said Johnson misled parliament in denying any lockdown-breaking parties, could be a particular focus in his Harwich and North Essex seat. Continue reading...

David Alexander of UCL says new framework merely ‘an attempt to tinker with the system’Experts in national disaster preparedness have warned that the UK’s post-pandemic resilience plan requires “wholesale, radical rewriting” and said the government was failing to keep the public sufficiently safe.Bruce Mann, former director of the Cabinet Office civil contingencies secretariat, told the Covid-19 public inquiry that changes called for in the new framework, published by Rishi Sunak’s government in December 2022, were “too slow” and it was “almost silent on resourcing”. Continue reading...

Long-awaited privileges committee report finds former PM was ‘deliberately disingenuous’ about Partygate events

Move follows months of debate in Washington, as Ukraine reports success in its counteroffensive

California-based Saddleback megachurch and Fern Creek Baptist church, a smaller congregation in Kentucky, were both expelledThe US Southern Baptist Convention voted to uphold the expulsion of two churches due to their having female pastors.On Wednesday at the annual SBC conference in New Orleans, representatives also known as “messengers” upheld an executive committee decision to expel the California-based Saddleback megachurch and Fern Creek Baptist church, a smaller congregation in Kentucky. Continue reading...

A brief breakdown of the report that found Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament while he was PM

Grey-faced officer pleaded his innocence after anti-corruption police allegedly caught him in the act of extorting businessmanA Colombian police officer has been admitted to hospital after swallowing a wad of banknotes he extorted from a businessman.The officer had demanded payments in return for not arresting his victim on trumped-up charges – but did not know that the businessman had already reported the shakedown to Colombia’s anti-kidnapping and extortion unit. Continue reading...

People in sports car were taking part in challenge to spend 50 hours in vehicle, according to reportsYouTubers driving a Lamborghini while filming a video crashed into a family car in Rome, killing a five-year-old boy and injuring his mother and sister, Italian media have reported.Three of the five people in the sports car belonged to a group called “TheBorderline”. Continue reading...

Gallery of Modern Art show includes original artefacts, ephemera and stencils used to create famous worksA new solo exhibition by Banksy – the graffiti artist’s first in 14 years – will reveal the stencils used to create many of his most famous works for the first time.Cut & Run, which opens at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) this weekend, has been officially authorised by the elusive street artist. Spanning from 1998 to the present day, it includes original artefacts, ephemera and the artist’s actual toilet. Continue reading...

Central Mediterranean migration route grows ever more perilous amid bickering and division over creating safe passagesThe feared deaths of as many as 500 people in the sinking of an overcrowded fishing boat off southern Greece have once more thrown a spotlight on the world’s deadliest migratory route – and Europe’s failure to tackle one of its greatest challenges.Since the International Organization for Migration (IoM) launched its missing migrants project in 2014, an estimated 27,000 people trying to reach Europe have been recorded as dead or disappeared while crossing the Mediterranean. Continue reading...

Australian consular officials will attend the opening of Badiucao’s show in Poland after Chinese ambassador demanded it be closed down

As country considers ‘right to be forgotten’, firm says it would be more effective to create legal obligations for sites hosting information

Eastern suburbs mayor criticises incentives for large developments involving 15% affordable housing

The 1.9% increase to a total of 26.3m is down to more overseas students and temporary workers, but experts say the rise will flatten outAustralia’s population grew at its fastest rate in more than 13 years in 2022, in part due to a post-pandemic migration boom.But while the figures are significant, demographer Dr Elin Charles-Edwards warned that a large portion of the migrants were only in Australia temporarily to address critical labour shortages and the numbers would fall over the coming years. Continue reading...

Women, aged 21 and 22, had met the suspect for the first time shortly beforehandOne of two female tourists attacked by a man near Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Germany has died, local media has reported, citing state prosecutors.The 21-year-old woman, who has not been identified, died in a hospital overnight, while her 22-year-old companion was still in hospital with serious injuries, the BR public broadcaster reported. Continue reading...

Carla Scott sentenced to 27 years for manslaughter and Dirk Howell jailed for at least 32 years for boy’s murderA mother has been jailed for 27 years for the manslaughter of her nine-year-old son, Alfie Steele, who was repeatedly beaten and held down in a cold bath, and her partner has been ordered to serve at least 32 years in prison for the boy’s murder.Alfie died on 18 February 2021 after being found with 50 injuries all over his body. He was hit with a leather belt and “dunked” in the bath at his home in Droitwich, Worcestershire. Continue reading...

Former PM to be questioned on Monday, with George Osborne, Jeremy Hunt and Oliver Dowden also slated to give evidence

‘Epic and deeply personal’ Nye by Tim Price will star Michael Sheen and be directed by Rufus NorrisA play charting the life of Nye Bevan and his battle to create the NHS is among 12 new productions that have been announced by the National Theatre.Nye, by Tim Price, was described by the National as a “Welsh fantasia [that] is both epic and deeply personal”. It will star Michael Sheen and be directed by Rufus Norris, the National’s artistic director who’s stepping down in 2025. Continue reading...

Board says it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public for Pitchfork, 63, to remain in jailThe double child killer Colin Pitchfork can be released from prison subject to conditions, the Parole Board has said.The decision, 18 months after Pitchfork was recalled to prison for “concerning behaviour”, could be opposed by the justice minister, Alex Chalk. Continue reading...

Information about mid-contract price increases must be made clear and upfront to consumers, says CAPBroadband and mobile phone companies are to be banned from advertising “misleading” fixed-price contracts that fail to warn consumers that they face hefty mid-contract price increases.Over the past year, telecoms providers have been surprising customers by imposing inflation-exceeding rises on their broadband and mobile phone payments mid-contract. Continue reading...

Absence of unified Libyan national government leaves Europe lacking effective allies to tackle people-smuggling tradeThe mass drowning of refugees heading from Libya for Italy as their large boat capsized off the coast of Greece underlines Libya’s continuing power vacuum and the inability of its divided leaders to deliver on their promises to stem the profitable people-smuggling trade. It is striking that the ship sailed from the eastern port of Tobruk, a city where local leaders have mounted a campaign against illegal migration.On 4 May, the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, granted Libya’s strongman in the east, Khalifa Haftar, a meeting in Rome at which she offered to invest in Libya’s east – the country has been divided into a rival east and west since 2015 – in return for action on the smugglers. Continue reading...

Director says past eight years ‘most challenging time in history’ for sector, but audience figures finally back at pre-pandemic levelsRufus Norris is to step down as director of the National Theatre after steering the flagship arts institution through the challenges of the Covid pandemic and responding to the climate crisis and the Black Lives Matter movement.Norris, the NT’s artistic director and chief executive, said that spring 2025, when he would have been in post for 10 years, was the “absolutely natural point” to move on. He said he had “no plans” for the future. Continue reading...

How Boris Johnson was found to have misled MPs and why report recommended a 90-day suspension from parliament

Independent Sydney MP filed defamation action against fellow NSW MP Mark Latham over a tweet and subsequent comments

Political chaos leaves prime minister in weakened position as he pursues controversial changesA rebellion by members of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in an important vote related to controversial judicial changes has dealt the longtime leader a political setback, bringing divisions in his coalition to the fore and scuppering compromise talks with the opposition.The Knesset was expected on Wednesday to elect two political representatives to the country’s nine-member judicial selection committee, one of the key issues in the six-month-old debate over the nature of Israeli democracy, and a vote widely viewed as a referendum on the overhaul’s future. Continue reading...

Chief inspector of immigration says there is ‘real danger’ that inhumane and dangerous conditions will return at Kent facilitySuella Braverman is facing the “real danger” that conditions for asylum seekers held at Manston processing facility will once again become inhumane and dangerous, the immigration watchdog has found.David Neal, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, said the Kent asylum centre, which became overcrowded and disease-ridden last year, could again become overwhelmed because ministers and officials in the Home Office were unable to say where they planned to house at least 55,000 people arriving by small boats this year. Continue reading...

Her singular passion lit up performances from Women in Love to King Lear and drove her 23-year middle career as an MPGlenda Jackson has died at the age of 87 after “a brief illness” at her home in London.In a statement, her agent, Lionel Larner, said: “Glenda Jackson, two-time Academy Award-winning actress and politician, died peacefully at her home in Blackheath, London, this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: As Iraq steps up transfers from al-Hawl, speaking to returnees raises questions over a process mired in complexitiesThe Iraqi government plans to accelerate the repatriation of its nationals with confirmed or suspected ties to Islamic State (IS) from north-east Syria, in a politically charged process that has ignited a struggle for power and money while highlighting the challenges of reintegrating a partly radicalised population.After months of deadlock, about 650 civilians, mostly women and children, were transferred last week from Syria’s notorious al-Hawl camp to a closed facility in northern Iraq called Jeddah-1, where they will spend several months before they are allowed to leave. Though they have not committed crimes, many have relatives who joined the terrorist group and have for years been exposed to extremist ideology. Continue reading...

Boys, aged 15 and 16, charged over fatal stabbing of aspiring rapper at house party on Saturday nightTwo teenage boys have been charged with the murder of 16-year-old Mikey Roynon, who was fatally stabbed during a house party in a suburb of Bath.Detectives from Avon and Somerset’s major crime investigation team said they had charged a 15-year-old boy from Dorset and a 16-year-old boy from Wiltshire with murder and possessing an offensive weapon. Continue reading...

Centre-right group fail to win enough support to defeat proposals after knife-edge votingThe EU’s flagship environment law to restore biodiversity on land and rivers is hanging by a thread after a rebellion mounted by a centre-right group of MEPs failed to block the proposed legislation from going to the next stage in the parliamentary process.In a dead heat, 44 MEPs voted in favour and 44 against the nature restoration law that was proposed last year as a fundamental part of the EU’s green deal. Continue reading...