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Salvatore Mancuso testified to peace tribunal that rightwing AUC worked hand in glove with business, military and political eliteA notorious former commander of Colombia’s largest paramilitary group has revealed new details of how rightwing death squads worked side by side with the country’s business, military and political elite to sow terror in the countryside and wipe out leftwing insurgencies.Salvatore Mancuso told Colombia’s peace tribunal this week that state institutions were not only complicit in the expansion of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) but actively coordinated with them, giving orders to wipe out anyone suspected of aligning with communist rebels. Continue reading...

Moscow also denied consular access to detained journalist as US imposes more punitive measures in response to Ukraine invasionRussia’s foreign ministry has said former President Barack Obama is among 500 US citizens who will be banned in response to the latest round of sanctions announced by Washington.The ministry also said on Friday that Russia had refused the latest US request for consular access to the detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in March on suspicion of spying. Continue reading...

Annual RHS show uses theme of accessibility in effort to broaden appeal of horticultureChelsea flower show has long been a staple of the society calendar, with celebrities and royals making an appearance among the peonies and roses.However, this year, the Royal Horticultural Society is trying to make the show – and horticulture – more inclusive, by putting on special events for children, and encouraging the creation of gardens with an accessibility theme. Continue reading...

Interior ministry seeks to detain Karim Khan in wake of allegations against president over abducted Ukrainian children

Signs that NHS’s inability to offer prompt care is creating surge in people resorting to private carePatients are paying up to £550 an hour to see private GPs amid frustration at the delays many face getting an appointment with an NHS family doctor.Growing numbers of paid-for GP services are opening up across Britain, in the latest sign of how the NHS’s inability to offer prompt care is creating a surge in people resorting to private healthcare. Continue reading...

Korean media praises prime minister’s gesture, known as ‘manner legs’, while some Canadians say it is embarrassing countryJustin Trudeau’s hair has made international headlines, as have his fumbling handshakes and propensity to appear shirtless when cameras are near. Now, the Canadian prime minister’s well-mannered legs are getting their moment in the spotlightAhead of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Trudeau and a delegation of Canadian ministers were in South Korea to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, as well as an attempt to salvage a multibillion-dollar battery plant deal. Continue reading...

Police found Alexander Carr in railway embankment tent in London after nationwide manhuntAn “arrogant” killer who provoked a national manhunt after killing a much-loved Sunderland woman has been convicted of murder.Alexander Carr went on the run for 18 days in December last year after stabbing 47-year-old Michelle Hanson to death in her flat. Continue reading...

International training programme, to begin soon in Europe, would be prerequisite to transfer of F-16s to Kyiv• How could F-16s affect the war?

Former PM’s wife announces pregnancy on Instagram, saying they ‘can’t wait to meet this little one’Carrie Johnson has announced that she and Boris Johnson are expecting their third child, with the expected delivery date just weeks away.Johnson announced on Instagram she was eight months pregnant, saying the baby would arrive in “just a few weeks”. The couple have two other children: Wilfred, who was born in April 2020, and Romy, who was born in December 2021. Continue reading...

Backbenchers seeking meeting with Suella Braverman after prime minister sets new goalRishi Sunak’s change of government targets on immigration has prompted discontent among restless Tory backbenchers, with some now seeking a meeting with the home secretary, Suella Braverman.It comes after the prime minister set a new goal of bringing migration down below the level he “inherited”, which was about 500,000 net arrivals a year when he took office. Continue reading...

The spray can reverse an opioid overdose and access to it has been eased in recent months, but access is still limitedIn late March, the Food and Drug Administration attempted to increase access to naloxone, a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose, by making it available over the counter rather than just by prescription. The move was hailed as a “strong step forward” in preventing overdose deaths by Xavier Becerra, the health and human services secretary.But big hurdles remain, said Dr Bharath Chakravarthy, an emergency physician at the University of California, Irvine, and other providers who treat people who are addicted to opioids. Continue reading...

Carmakers’ criticisms and migration figures add to pressure on Rishi Sunak, who is not trusted by leaversRishi Sunak cut a relaxed figure as he sat in shirtsleeves, clutching a Downing Street mug, chatting to journalists on the plane to the G7 conference in Japan this week. One question ruffled his smooth demeanour, though: what did he make of Nigel Farage’s eye-opening comments the previous evening?Brexit had “failed”, Farage had said. Britain had “not actually benefited … economically” from leaving the EU. And who was to blame for this sorry state of affairs? “Useless” Tory governments. Continue reading...

Prime minister says he wants level of net immigration to fall below the 500,000 it was when he took over. This live blog is now closedIt is a topic Rishi Sunak would no doubt prefer to avoid: the record-breaking jump in net immigration – soon to be revealed in official figures – which is already causing increasingly fractious rows within his cabinet.Even a trip to the G7 summit in Japan was not far enough, with reporters on the flight asking directly whether the prime minister intended to stick to Boris Johnson’s 2019 manifesto pledge to bring net immigration down. Continue reading...

John Allan, a prominent business leader and former CBI president, to leave role at AGM on 16 June

Emergency meeting to address the targeting of LGBTQ+ events hears from extremism expert who says cancellations are exploited as victories by far right

CoreLogic researcher Tim Lawless says current spike in migration countering effect of Reserve Bank’s rate hike earlier this month

University is latest body to distance itself from sponsorship by owners of Purdue Pharma, makers of OxyContinKing’s College London has become one of the latest UK institutions to sever all ties with the Sackler family following outrage over its role in the deadly opioids epidemic in the US.Several other UK organisations that have recently been funded by Sackler cash, including the Royal Opera House, continue to take active steps to distance themselves from the family and expunge all records of their previous ties. Continue reading...

Days before general election, footage emerges showing ‘illegal’ deportation of refugees out of country’s borderThe Greek government is facing fresh condemnation of its migration policies, days before general elections, following the release of video footage depicting the forcible expulsion of asylum seekers who had sought sanctuary in the country.Barely 48 hours before polls open, the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ centre-right administration has been put on the defensive by extraordinary documentation of the illegal “pushback”. The footage, taken by an Austrian activist on Lesbos last month, was brought to light by the New York Times, which published the material on Friday, after being “verified and corroborated” by the US outlet. Continue reading...

Appeal court judges say events leading to 16-year-old’s death ‘can only be categorised as extreme’Parents jailed for leaving their daughter to die in squalor have had their sentences increased at the court of appeal.Kaylea Titford, 16, was found in conditions described as “unfit for any animal”, after her death at the family home in Newtown, Powys, in October 2020. Continue reading...

Britain’s most valuable fintech firm has criticised regulatory hurdles that it says could drive it abroadSenior government ministers have asked to meet the bosses of Britain’s most valuable fintech firm, Revolut, amid reports that the company’s banking licence application may be refused by UK City regulators.The Guardian understands that the stated intention of the meeting is to discuss the government’s growth agenda but it comes amid a series of complaints from businesses including Revolut over regulatory hurdles that their bosses claim could drive firms abroad. Continue reading...

Hundreds of firefighters struggle to contain blaze across at least 7,500 hectares in northern ExtremaduraHundreds of civilian and military firefighters are tackling a wildfire in south-west Spain that has burned across at least 7,500 hectares (18,500 acres) of land and forced the evacuation of more than 500 people since it began on Wednesday evening.Efforts to fight the “very large and difficult” fire in the Las Hurdes and Sierra de Gata areas of northern Extremadura are being hindered by strong winds, according to the regional government, which believes the blaze was started deliberately. Continue reading...

Assad is attending summit in Saudi Arabia after 12 years outside bloc over Syrian civil warA smiling Bashar al-Assad has been brought in from the diplomatic cold in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, receiving a warm welcome to a summit of the Arab League.Arriving on a Syrian Airlines jet, Assad took his place at the summit for the first time since the 22-member bloc suspended his country in 2011 after a violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators that led to civil war. Continue reading...

A surprise speaker at the Pen America gala, the author said ‘if it had not been for these people, I most certainly would not be standing here’Salman Rushdie has made his first public appearance since he was stabbed and lost sight in one eye after being attacked at a literary event, joking that it was “nice to be back – as opposed to not being back, which was also an option”.Rushdie was a surprise attendee at the Pen America gala on Thursday night in New York. The author was greeted with a standing ovation according to the New York Times. After his remarks about being back, he said he was “pretty glad the dice rolled this way”. Continue reading...

Conceived by the artistic director of Birmingham Rep, Sean Foley, the award will be open to all with the winner receiving £25,000A new playwriting prize dedicated to comedy has been launched in honour of Victoria Wood on what would have been the standup and writer’s 70th birthday.The Victoria Wood playwriting prize for comedy is the brainchild of Sean Foley, the artistic director of Birmingham Rep. Foley called comedy “perhaps the most difficult genre of all” and said the new award is “the first major playwriting prize for narrative stage comedy in the world”. The competition is open to all, with submissions accepted from September. The winner will receive £25,000. Continue reading...

Ukrainian president to take part in Hiroshima talks on Sunday as leaders target exports to Russia

Exclusive: Unions say move will diminish national security, with temporary staff unable to detain suspected terroristsHundreds of soldiers and sailors are to be trained from Monday to cover striking Border Force guards, as ministers prepare for a potential summer of chaos at ports and airports, the Guardian can reveal.In a move which unions say will diminish security at points of entry to the UK, members of the armed forces will be given five days’ training before checking passports at Heathrow, Gatwick and Dover. Continue reading...

Company has clashed with governor over anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, prompting state to strip its self-governing powerDisney has scrapped plans to build a near $1bn (£804m) corporate campus for 2,000 employees in Florida, amid an increasingly bitter political and legal battle with the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, over the future of the entertainment giant’s theme parks.Walt Disney, which has also announced the closure of its $2,500-a-night “Star Wars” Galactic Starcruiser Hotel in Orlando, said it would no longer relocate California-based employees including theme park ride designers to the new campus about 18 miles (30km) east of Walt Disney World. Continue reading...

UNHCR says Myanmar government has refused to allow it to distribute health supplies in Sittwe, where an estimated 90% of Rohingya homes have been destroyedUN staff say they have been denied access to help thousands of Rohingya living in displacement camps in Myanmar who are in urgent need of food, medicine and shelter in the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha, which struck the west of the country on Sunday.People living in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, said they estimated that about 90% of homes of Rohingya people had been destroyed and more than 100 people killed when winds of more than 150 miles an hour hit the region. However, the refugee agency UNHCR said the Myanmar government has refused access to the camps in Sittwe, home to about 100,000 people. “As yet, UNHCR has not been granted access to carry out needs assessments.” Continue reading...

Acclaimed actor in European art cinema also secured a prominent role in US soap opera DynastyAustrian actor Helmut Berger, who became a star of 60s and 70s art cinema with roles in films such as Luchino Visconti’s The Damned, and Ludwig and Joseph Losey’s The Romantic Englishwoman, has died aged 78. His death was announced by his management agency, which posted a statement on its website saying Berger had “passed away peacefully but unexpectedly” in Salzburg, the city where he grew up.Born Helmut Steinberger in the Austrian spa town of Bad Ischl in 1944, Berger studied acting in London before moving to Italy, where he met and began a relationship with acclaimed director Luchino Visconti, nearly 40 years his senior. Visconti gave him his first acting role, a small part in the comic anthology The Witches, and subsequently cast him in a spectacular role in his landmark 1969 epic The Damned. Berger played Martin von Essenbeck, a scion of a wealthy industrial family who struggle for control over the business in interwar Germany as the Nazis rise to power; for the film, Berger famously performed in drag as Marlene Dietrich and was subsequently nominated for a Golden Globe for most promising male newcomer. Continue reading...

The unacknowledged debt Potter owed to the Brer Rabbit stories told by enslaved Africans deserves to be recognised, says scholarThink of Beatrix Potter and you will probably call to mind her tales of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Mrs Tiggy-Winkle. These popular stories, with their English country garden settings and precise illustrations, have been stalwarts of British children’s bookshelves over the past century. Yet the stories may not be as British as most of us assume.Dr Emily Zobel Marshall, in a new essay for The Conversation, has called for wider acknowledgment of the debt Potter owed to the Brer Rabbit stories told by enslaved Africans working on American plantations. Continue reading...

Incentive from Jeremy Hunt comes only days after three carmakers issued Brexit rules warningThe government has offered Jaguar Land Rover £500m in subsidies in an effort to persuade the carmaker to build a new electric battery plant in the UK.The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has offered a package of incentives to entice JLR, days after three global carmakers warned that Brexit rules on where parts were sourced threatened the future of the British automotive industry. Continue reading...

Poster showed Renaissance sculpture holding slice of pizza with phrase ‘It doesn’t get more Italian’They love a macaroni cheese pie but, according to advertising giants, the vision of Michelangelo’s David in the buff is too much to stomach for Glasgwegians.An Italian restaurant in Scotland’s biggest city has been forced to change its adverts featuring the world-renowned sculpture after the ad business Global Media Group blocked them because of David’s nudity. Continue reading...

Human rights groups condemn executions following anti-regime protests that swept country last yearIran has executed three men it said were implicated in the deaths of three members of the security forces during anti-government protests, drawing condemnation from rights groups and risking further international isolation.Saleh Mirhashemi, Majid Kazemi and Saeed Yaqoubi were killed on Friday morning, the Tasnim agency reported. Crowds had gathered outside the prison where they were being held on Thursday night as rumours of their imminent execution grew. Continue reading...

Comic Li Haoshi made joke about soldiers that Beijing authorities deemed insultingChinese police detained a woman for posting online in support of the comedian who was punished for making a joke that authorities said insulted the Chinese military.According to state media, the 34-year-old woman, reportedly surnamed Shi, admitted to police that she had posted “inappropriate” comments about Chinese soldiers. Continue reading...

Timothy Schofield, 54, sentenced to 12 years for offences committed while a civilian police workerThe brother of the television presenter Phillip Schofield has been jailed for 12 years after being convicted of sexually abusing a vulnerable teenage boy over a three-year period.Timothy Schofield, 54, who was a civilian police worker with the Avon and Somerset force at the time of the abuse, was found guilty of 11 sexual offences involving a child. Continue reading...

Boy arrested and police searching for at least two more suspects

Belief in afterlife higher among gen Z and millennials than in baby boomers, despite being less religious generallyYou may think the idea of hellfire belongs to an age when people’s lives were shaped by the threat of eternal damnation.Wrong, it seems: generation Z and millennials in the UK are significantly more likely to believe in hell than baby boomers, according to a new study by the Policy Institute at King’s College London. Continue reading...

PM praises ‘widely respected’ defence secretary who has stated his interest in succeeding Jens Stoltenberg

Former human rights commissioner suggested Indigenous leaders should consider ‘compromise’ to improve referendum’s chance

Fall in value of Infosys, in which PM’s wife Akshata Murty holds a stake, drives drop in couple’s wealthRishi Sunak has seen his personal family fortune fall by more than £200m over the last year.Sunak, a former hedge fund manager and reputedly the UK’s wealthiest ever prime minister, and his heiress wife, Akshata Murty, have an estimated worth of about £529m in the latest Sunday Times rich list, a fall from £730m in 2022. Continue reading...

Hinduja family remain at top, while Richard Branson drops 33 places to 77th

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The first comes as jump in deposits and interest rates drives earnings up 40% to record highsNationwide will pay £340m directly into customer accounts for the first time, after a jump in deposits and higher interest rates drove annual profits up 40% to record highs.Britain’s biggest building society has tended to use profits to offer better rates on savings, loans and mortgages for its members but on Friday it launched an inaugural programme that will distribute funds directly to customers, akin to shareholder payouts made by banks. Continue reading...

Putin ‘can’t outlast us’ says PM, who will use Hiroshima summit to push countries like Brazil and India to do more for UkraineRishi Sunak has warned Vladimir Putin that western leaders are “not going away” as they gathered at the G7 summit in Japan, with the Ukranian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, preparing to fly in to meet them.At a teahouse in Shukkeien garden in Hiroshima on Friday, the prime minister told Sky News: “Russia needs to know that we and other countries remain steadfast in our resolve to support Ukraine, not just in the here and now with the resources it needs to protect itself, but for the long term as well.” Continue reading...

Torrential rain submerged the dried-out landscape of the Emilia-Romagna region, forcing thousands to evacuateAt the start of this week an area of low pressure moved off the coast of north Africa, deepening as it travelled northwards across the Mediterranean before situating itself over Italy. Consequentially, much of the country received persistent heavy rain from Monday to Wednesday with the largest quantity falling over the north-eastern Emilia-Romagna region.Within a 36-hour period this region received an average 200mm of rainfall, although some areas recorded at least 500mm during the same period. Given Emilia-Romagna receives an average of 1,000mm a year, 50% of the annual mean rainfall falling in a short timeframe in a localised area has led to substantial flooding as rivers burst their banks. Continue reading...

Musician described as ‘supremely gifted’ by bandmate Johnny Marr had suffered long illness with pancreatic cancerAndy Rourke, the bassist for indie legends the Smiths, has died aged 59.The news was announced by guitarist Johnny Marr on social media, who wrote:It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Andy Rourke after a lengthy illness with pancreatic cancer. Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans. We request privacy at this sad time. Continue reading...

Voters as young as 16 will play a pivotal role as country goes to the polls on SundayGreek politicians are courting an estimated 430,000 generation Z voters, some as young as 16, as the country braces for a general election, taking to TikTok and YouTube to woo what could be a key demographic.A smile crosses Stefanos Tsiandis’s face when talk turns to a poll that has been as low-key as it is unpredictable. As a first-time voter, the 19-year-old knows exactly which party he’ll be rooting for when he casts his ballot on Sunday. But that, he adds, is rare. “Our vote counts, and mine will go to Pasok,” says the economics student, proudly posing with the flag of the centre-left party he has just waved vigorously at a campaign rally beneath the Acropolis. “It’s disgusting how they’re making all these promises to win our support. It says so much about our political system. Continue reading...

Report finds over-55s feeling more confident about spending and avoiding Covid-19 – but younger Australians and families are feeling the pinch

ABC says press club address could not have been defamatory even if Lehrmann’s identity already widely known

The ABC presenter says he has been a media target for racism and for now he’s ‘walking away’