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Kevin Bakhurst says all options on the table as he takes charge of Irish national broadcaster at difficult timeThe new director general of Ireland's national broadcaster has raised the prospect of selling off its headquarters in south Dublin in response to a furore over the pay of its leading television presenter.Kevin Bakhurst, a former BBC and Ofcom executive, took up his role at RTE on Monday and began work by standing down the broadcaster's executive board in a move to restore confidence. Continue reading...

Progress expected at Nato summit thanks to attendance of Japan's PM but no mention made in latest talksNato appears to have shelved plans to open a liaison office in Tokyo, a proposal that had been discussed as part of the western military alliance's plans to deepen cooperation with partners in the Asia-Pacific but which was strongly opposed by China.The idea to open an office was first discussed after Nato's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, visited Japan earlier this year. It reportedly involved opening a civilian office in Tokyo in 2024, as a means of facilitating Nato's dialogues in the Asia-Pacific. It was expected progress would be made at the Nato summit thanks to the attendance of Fumio Kishida, Japan's prime minister, for the second year in a row. Continue reading...

Anthony Albanese announces aid after meeting Volodomyr Zelenskiy on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Lithuania

Members of NASUWT give largest mandate in a decade' for action over pay, workload and working hoursMembers of the NASUWT teachers' union have voted in favour of industrial action over pay and workload, raising the prospect of mass strikes and widespread disruption across schools in England this autumn.After months of stalemate with no progress over teachers' pay, NASUWT members voted decisively for industrial action, with 88.5% of eligible members voting to support strike action and 94.3% supporting action short of strike. Continue reading...

Country's censors give green light for film to be shown amid South China Sea controversyPhilippine censors have allowed the Barbie film to be shown in the country's cinemas after asking its Hollywood distributor to blur lines on a brightly coloured drawing of a world map allegedly showing China's claims to the disputed South China Sea.The fantasy comedy film about the famous doll, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is to open in the south-east Asian nation on 19 July. Continue reading...

Second flu death recorded in past week after student died on NSW Central Coast

The Czech novelist found himself silenced by the communist regime at home, but achieved international fame with playfully philosophical fictionCzech writer Milan Kundera, who explored being and betrayal over half a century in poems, plays, essays and novels including The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has died aged 94 after a prolonged illness, Anna Mrazova, spokeswoman for the Milan Kundera Library has confirmed.Famously leaving his homeland for France in 1975 after being expelled from the Czechoslovakian Communist party for anti-communist activities", Kundera spent 40 years living in exile in Paris after his Czech citizenship was revoked in 1979. There he wrote his most famous works, including Nesnesitelna lehkost byti (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) and later left behind his mother tongue to write novels in French, beginning with 1993's La lenteur (Slowness) and his final novel, 2014's The Festival of Insignificance. He was often cited as a contender for the Nobel prize in literature. Continue reading...

Edwin Flay brings his one-man drama, in which he plays the GP and serial killer, to the Edinburgh fringeHe was a big man with a bushy beard and a bowl of sweets on his desk for good boys and girls.This is all Edwin Flay remembers about Harold Shipman, whose surgery in Hyde he visited as a small child in the 1970s. The GP later became the UK's most persistent serial killer, ending the life of about 250 of his patients. Continue reading...

Latest allegations in Sun will result in more vitriol thrown at innocent colleagues and BBC, tweets VineJeremy Vine has urged his fellow BBC presenter at the heart of a scandal engulfing the broadcaster to come forward to protect his colleagues.The crisis began last Friday after the Sun newspaper accused an anonymous male presenter of paying a young person more than 35,000 in return for sordid images". Continue reading...

Germany promises more Patriot supplies to Ukraine; Zelenskiy sets out his agenda for second day of Nato summit in Vilnius

Fellow hospitality chain Loungers enjoys record sales, with inflationary pressures diminishingThe pub chain JD Wetherspoon has reported soaring sales in recent weeks, as cash-strapped consumers look for cheaper food and drinks amid high inflation and the cost of living crisis.Wetherspoon's, which runs just under 830 pubs across the UK and Ireland, said its sales had risen by 11% in the 10 weeks since the start of May, compared with the same period in 2019, before the pandemic. Continue reading...

The 2018 breach is separate to the existing scandal over tax policy information that has triggered a reputation crisis for the firmEmbattled consultancy firm PwC has admitted to another serious conflict of interest breach but has clarified that it did not involve the misuse of government information.The breach occurred in 2018 and is separate to the misuse of confidential tax policy information that has triggered a reputation crisis for the firm and seen the divestment of its government services division for just $1. Continue reading...

Finance Sector Union lodges dispute as mandate to limit working from home scheduled to come into effect 17 July

Owen Townsend, 25, found in Golden Beach after going missing while trying to reach his grandmother's house

Fire crews investigating after incident that saw neighbours evacuated and debris scattered over the neighbourhood

Victorian government understood to be examining charity's building for city's second supervised injecting room

Exclusive: Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities returning money to Treasury after struggling to find projects to spend it onMichael Gove's department is handing back 1.9bn to the Treasury originally meant to tackle England's housing crisis after struggling to find projects to spend it on.The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has surrendered hundreds of millions of pounds budgeted for 2022-23, including 255m meant to fund new affordable housing and 245m meant to improve building safety. Continue reading...

Lowe's speech may be his last as Reserve Bank governor before treasurer Jim Chalmers announces whether his term will be renewed

Illicit drug use in Australia jumped over summer despite a string of high-profile drug busts

Man, 81, and 75-year-old woman pulled from home on Lily Street by firefighters but pair could not be revived

New report reveals 83% of respondents are concerned universities' focus on profit is undermining education standards

Minority ethnic newborns risk late diagnosis and poorer health as guidance was developed for white European babies in 1952Tests to assess newborn babies' health are not effective for non-white children and should be replaced, according to the NHS Race and Health Observatory.In the UK, neonatal death rates among black and Asian newborns are much higher than for white babies. Continue reading...

Mexican authorities will seek to extradite Bryant Rivera of the Los Angeles area for the death of Angela Carolina Acosta FloresUS authorities have arrested a California man accused of killing three women in the Mexican border city of Tijuana and crossing back and forth across the international line after each of the deaths, which occurred over the course of nearly a year starting in 2021.According to US court records, 30-year-old Bryant Rivera, a resident of the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, was arrested on 6 July on a femicide charge in the strangulation death of Angela Carolina Acosta Flores, whose body was found in a hotel room in Tijuana on 25 January 2022. Continue reading...

Boy, 15, charged with attempted wounding with intent and possession of a bladed article on school premisesA 15-year-old boy has been charged with attempted wounding with intent and possession of a bladed article after a maths teacher was stabbed at a school in Gloucestershire, police have said.Jamie Sansom suffered a single stab wound on Monday morning in a corridor at the secondary school where he works in Tewkesbury and was discharged from Gloucestershire royal hospital a few hours later. Continue reading...

Exclusive: The Albanese government says it is disappointed' Beijing's review couldn't be completed in the initial three months

Campaigners urge MPs to stand on the right side of history' by voting against the government's billRishi Sunak has now arrived in Vilnius (pictured below disembarking from the plane with the foreign secretary, James Cleverly) where Nato summit proceedings kick off today.Defending the government's defence investment amid suggestions the UK could lose influence as a result of the size of its army, he said:I think the UK should be incredibly proud of the leading role that we play, not just in Nato but across the world, in protecting security and indeed in investing in our armed forces. Continue reading...

Nigerian stowaways survived for at least a week under ship that voyaged from Lagos via Lome, TogoThe Spanish coastguard rescued two Nigerian men who survived for at least a week balancing on the rudder of a ship as it sailed from the west African country of Togo to the Canary Islands.The two men were rescued on Monday night in the port of Las Palmas, and taken to a hospital for medical checks. They were later released and were transferred back to the ship, which will return them to their port of origin, the port police tweeted. Continue reading...

Anthony Albanese tries to ambush UK counterpart, but Sunak was ready with image of England team at HeadingleyThe Australian prime minister tried to ambush his British counterpart at the Nato summit with a picture of the controversial stumping of England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow in the Ashes cricket series.Rishi Sunak was unexpectedly prepared, and produced from his official portfolio his own photo of England's Mark Wood and Chris Woakes celebrating getting the winning runs at Headingley on Sunday, giving the host nation their first victory after two consecutive Australian wins. Continue reading...

Berkshire coroner names schools inspectorate for England as interested persons' in inquiryOfsted's role in the events leading up to the death of the Berkshire headteacher Ruth Perry will be examined during an inquest later this year, a coroner has ruled.Heidi Connor, the senior coroner for Berkshire, named the schools inspectorate for England as interested persons" as part of her inquiry into the death of the primary school leader, whose family say killed herself after a devastating" Ofsted inspection. Continue reading...

Relatives of pro-democracy activist taken in for questioning days after bounties issued for political exilesPolice in Hong Kong have raided the home of Nathan Law's family, taking relatives of the UK-exiled pro-democracy activist away for questioning.Officers from the national security department visited the housing estate where Law's family live and took his parents and brother in for questioning in the early hours of Tuesday morning. So far no arrests have been made. Continue reading...

Department of Work and Pensions warned by auditor general about potential bias in algorithmsThe government has widened its deployment of artificial intelligence to uncover welfare fraud, despite warnings of algorithmic bias against groups of vulnerable claimants.In a 70m investment applying advanced analytics" to requests for universal credit (UC), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has extended the use of machine learning as it attempts to save more than 1bn from the 8bn-plus lost to fraud and error last year, audit documents scrutinised by the Guardian reveal. Continue reading...

Agriculture remains the sticking point as trade minister Don Farrell says both sides will keep trying and will meet again in August

Prayuth Chan-ocha announces resignation after his party suffered a humiliating defeat in May electionThe Thai prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, has said he will retire from politics, more than nine years after the former army general seized power in a military coup.In May, his party suffered a humiliating defeat, coming fifth, well behind an upstart opposition party that promised to remove the military from politics. He will remain as caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed. Continue reading...

From 1 January employers will be required to guarantee visa holders at least 30 hours a week averaged over four weeks, instead of over nine months

Series of social media ads says robodebt destroyed lives' in bid to encourage voters to turn against LNP

Exclusive: Disclosures about ex-minister Jonathan Djanogly turn spotlight on controversial mechanism used to buy shares

NGOs behind report suggest minimal savings for Home Office if Bibby Stockholm barge used in place of 5.6m-a-day hotelsControversial plans to house asylum seekers on a barge to reduce reliance on expensive hotels will save less than 10 a person a day, according to a report.The report, Bibby Stockholm - At What Cost? from the NGOs Reclaim The Seas and One Life To Live, provides the first detailed estimated costings of the Bibby Stockholm, the barge the Home Office is planning to use in Dorset to accommodate asylum seekers. Continue reading...

MS-2 Step medication, also known as RU486, can now be prescribed by any healthcare practitioner

Government keeps buffer' of 5,000 beds to avoid repeat of overcrowding seen at Manston last yearThe Home Office is paying for thousands of empty hotel beds reserved for people seeking asylum to avoid a repeat of dangerous overcrowding at a processing centre last year, MPs have heard.Officials told the Commons public accounts committee the government department keeps a buffer" of about 5,000 beds across the country in case of a sudden influx of Channel crossings in a bid to avoid a repeat of problems at the Manston processing centre in Kent. Continue reading...

We look at the big challenges still facing the telecoms group - and who could take over as chief executivePhilip Jansen's belief that he was the right man to revive BT's fortunes led the outgoing chief executive to spend more than 7m on shares in the telecoms giant during his tenure. Yet his successor will inherit a business that has seen more than 10bn wiped off its market value over the past four years.On Monday, the 56-year-old confirmed that he intends to stand down as chief executive, a role he has held since February 2019, with the chair, Adam Crozier, due to give an update on the hunt for a successor later in the summer. Continue reading...

Nurse is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill 10 others at Chester hospitalJurors in the trial of a nurse accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill 10 others have begun deliberating their verdicts.Lucy Letby, 33, denies harming infants on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester hospital in north-west England, where she worked. Continue reading...

A 25-year-old man has been detained after attack that also left one person injuredA man has killed six people, three of them young children, and injured a seventh in a knife attack at a kindergarten in southern China.The 25-year-old began his rampage in the town of Lianjiang, in Guangdong province, at 7.40am local time on Monday, police said. Continue reading...

Theresa Mallett spoke out during first minister's speech to call for public inquiry into Sam EljamelWhen Theresa Mallett walked into Caird Hall in Dundee a little more than a fortnight ago, it was not her intention to bring Humza Yousaf's keynote address to a standstill.Mallett, a committed nationalist, was attending the independence convention as an SNP member, but had hoped that she might tell her story to a party worker or journalist at the event. Continue reading...

Anti-corruption protests have drawn a stream of European politicians to the country - and the man tasked with cleaning up its act is confident that he can deliverIn December, amid sub-zero temperatures, thousands of Mongolians turned up in Sukhbaatar Square in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, to protest about rampant corruption, and for a moment the Asian democracy, sitting uneasily between China and Russia, looked as though it might crumble.That this would have mattered to the west is shown by the number of European politicians who since have travelled to the capital, including not just Emmanuel Macron, the French president, but Polish president, Andrzej Duda, the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, and her French counterpart, Catherine Colonna. Continue reading...

An adult allegedly encouraged a teenager to ride the baggage carousel before filming the minor entering a secure area

Experts delighted portrait re-found but say this is cautionary tale', stressing importance of rigorous checks to avoid misattributionAfter being consigned to dark storage rooms for up to six decades as the work of an unknown artist, a portrait of a one-armed naval veteran has been reattributed to the celebrated 18th century painter Thomas Gainsborough.A fundraising drive has been launched to raise 60,000 for extensive conservation work on the painting and its frame before it is hung in the Queen's House, part of Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG), next year. Continue reading...

Unnamed star, who allegedly gave young person 35,000 which they spent on drug habit, has also been reported to policeThe BBC has suspended a prominent male presenter and reported them to the police over allegations that he paid a teenager for sexually explicit images.The BBC confirmed on Sunday that it was investigating allegations that the presenter had given 35,000 over three years to a young person who used the money to fund their crack cocaine habit. Continue reading...

Robodebt royal commissioner Catherine Holmes found that public servants had misled cabinet, and misled the commonwealth ombudsman

Well known' presenter reportedly accused of paying more than 35,000 in exchange for explicit imagesThe BBC is taking very seriously" allegations that one of its presenters has been taken off air over paying a teenager for sexual photographs.A well known" presenter has been accused of paying more than 35,000 in exchange for explicit images, the Sun reported. Continue reading...

Former head of the Department of Human Services faces calls to resign after royal commission findings