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Poundland, Home Bargains and The Range also in talks to snap up some of stricken retailer's outletsThe discount chain B&M has struck a deal to buy 51 Wilko stores for up to 13m as the stricken retailer's administrators rush to seal last-minute deals with the fate of thousands of jobs hanging in the balance.B&M, one of the UK's most successful discount retailers with a market value of 5bn and 1,100 outlets nationwide and in France, said it will acquire up to 51" Wilko sites for a maximum aggregate consideration" of 13m. Continue reading...

Kim Jong-un's grandfather founded North Korea with the backing of the Soviet Union, and was heavily reliant on its aid for decadesAfter years of backing UN sanctions targeting North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, Russia is now reaching out to its neighbour for help. The war in Ukraine has forced the Kremlin to reassess its relationship with Pyongyang as it seeks to secure weapons to replace its own depleted stocks.A possible meeting between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un later this month in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok would add geopolitical substance to the symbolic meeting of minds that has unfolded between the leaders of the pariah states over 18 months of fighting in Ukraine. Continue reading...

Terry Gou, who entered the race last week, said the island's demographic crisis could be solved by giving expectant parents a cat or dogA billionaire presidential hopeful in Taiwan has proposed boosting the plummeting birthrate by offering couples free pets if they have a baby.Terry Gou, the founder of Apple-supplier Foxconn, announced his intention to seek the presidency as an independent candidate last week. Continue reading...

The Murdoch broadsheet breached three standards in the article, which caused unnecessary distress and was not in the public interest, body says

Mother of girl who died after hospital failed to admit her to intensive care says policy would make it easier for patients and families to seek advice from senior doctorMinisters are considering introducing Martha's rule in England to make it easier for patients and their families who believe their concerns are not being taken seriously by medical staff to get a second medical opinion.Steve Barclay, the health secretary, said a similar measure enforced in Australia had been shown to have saved lives. He said officials had been tasked with looking into such initiatives could improve patient safety here in the UK". Continue reading...

PM accused of cutting back repair efforts when he was chancellor, as education secretary apologises for claim colleagues failed to actThe school buildings crisis is threatening to engulf Downing Street, with Rishi Sunak accused of slashing the budget for repairs while his education secretary was caught claiming colleagues had done nothing to stop it.As pupils began returning to schools around England on Monday - or in some cases took lessons from home or in temporary classrooms - the prime minister faced claims he failed to grasp the gravity of the situation as chancellor. Continue reading...

Opposition politicians claim that voters faced widespread intimidation in election won by Zimbabwe's presidentEmmerson Mnangagwa has promised to give Zimbabweans a better life after he was sworn in as the country's president for a second term following a vote that the opposition has claimed was stolen.The lives of our people should be improved, nothing less," Mnangagwa told thousands of supporters at the National Sports stadium in Harare, and called for peace and tolerance from political opponents. Continue reading...

Simon Byrne resigns as head of PSNI after data breaches and unlawful disciplining of two junior officers

Exclusive: Commission including former ministers voices concern at lack of urgency from two main parties over scale of povertyThe collapse of the UK's social contract is leaving millions of low-income families surviving not living" and forced to endure unacceptable levels of poverty, according to an independent cross-party report.The Poverty Strategy Commission, which seeks to forge a new national political consensus on reducing poverty, and which includes former ministers from the three main parties, says poverty levels are too high and hardship is becoming more extreme. It warns a more of the same" approach to poverty in the future will fail. Continue reading...

Education secretary caught on camera claiming government has gone over and above' in addressing concerns about Raac in schools

Ministers have not yet published a list of affected schools but PA Media has listed a number of those thought to have been told to fully or partly close

Open letter backs student-led campaign for vegan catering to fight climate crisisMore than 650 academics have called on British universities to commit to 100% plant-based catering to fight the climate crisis, saying that the institutions have for centuries, been shining lights of intellectual, moral, and scientific progress".The open letter, organised by the student-led Plant-Based Universities campaign, likened the move to meat-free food to the fossil fuel divestment to which 101 UK universities have already committed. Continue reading...

More than 5,500 trains due to serve West Yorkshire town in 2023 were cancelled, BBC research findsRail passengers travelling to and from Huddersfield station have been the most likely to see their plans thwarted by cancellations, according to an analysis of Great Britain's trains.More than 5,500 trains due to serve the West Yorkshire town in 2023 were cancelled, about one in eight services, research for the BBC has found. Continue reading...

All Star singer also suffered from heart and neurological conditions in recent years, and retired in 2021Steve Harwell, the US singer with late-90s pop successes Smash Mouth, has been transferred to hospice care amid a struggle with liver disease.His manager Robert Hayes told various US news outlets of the news, saying: Although Steve is here with us still, sadly it will only be for a short time." He told USA Today that Harwell is resting at home" and being cared for by his fiancee and hospice care". Continue reading...

In an exclusive interview, a leading Ukrainian general says his forces have made a vital breakthrough near ZaporizhzhiaUkrainian forces have decisively breached Russia's first defensive line near Zaporizhzhia after weeks of painstaking mine clearance, and expect faster gains as they press the weaker second line, the general leading the southern counteroffensive has said.Brig Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskiy estimated Russia had devoted 60% of its time and resources into building the first defensive line and only 20% each into the second and third lines because Moscow had not expected Ukrainian forces to get through. Continue reading...

Scheme launching in east and West Midlands is expected to be rolled out across England and Wales next yearDomestic abusers leaving prison will have to wear electronic monitoring tags in a move that the government says will offer better protection to victims.Under a pilot scheme launching in the east and West Midlands, and expected to be rolled out across England and Wales next year, any offender who poses a threat to a former partner or their children will be banned from going within a certain distance of a victim's home and/or subject to a curfew. Continue reading...

Electric scooter rental experiment in French capital ends after 5 years of controversyParis will become the first European capital to ban rented electric scooters on Friday, as the city hall vowed to calm down" the streets.Five years after Paris became the first city in Europe to open up to the free-floating" shared e-scooter market in 2018, the last of the city's 15,000 e-scooters were loaded into vans on Thursday afternoon, marking the end of an era. Continue reading...

Fintech company still made second-quarter operating loss of 62m as calls grow for sector to be regulatedKlarna, a buy now, pay later firm, has reported a profitable month for the first time in three years.The Swedish company, which allows shoppers to defer and split the cost of items but has been accused of tipping people into debt, has struggled to make money in recent years amid rising bad debts and weak consumer confidence. Continue reading...

Energy secretary appointed defence secretary in mini-reshuffle, with Claire Coutinho taking the energy security briefGrant Shapps said he is honoured" to become defence secretary and praised Ben Wallace for his time in the role.Shapps tweeted:I'm honoured to be appointed as Defence Secretary by Rishi Sunak. I'd like to pay tribute to the enormous contribution Ben Wallace has made to UK defence & global security over the last 4 years.As I get to work at DefenceHQ I am looking forward to working with the brave men and women of our Armed Forces who defend our nation's security. And continuing the UK's support for Ukraine in their fight against Putin's barbaric invasion. Continue reading...

A week before start of term, DfE says buildings should be taken out of use regardless of assessed riskThe government has told schools in England to immediately shut buildings made with aerated concrete until safety work is undertaken, the Guardian understands, in a move threatening plans to reopen next week for the start of the new school year.In an escalation of the schools building safety crisis, the Department of Education has issued new advice - believed to have happened as recently as Thursday - stating that regardless of the assessed risk of a building made using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) blocks, such buildings should be taken out of use and mitigations should be implemented immediately". Continue reading...

Ex-chancellor said to be brokering deal between UAE investors and Barclay family as latter attempt to regain control of media groupThe former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi is in line to become chair of the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph after brokering a deal between Middle Eastern investors and the Barclay family, according to reports.The Barclays are thought to be attempting to regain control of the media group with financial support from investors in the United Arab Emirates, months after surrendering the debt-laden business to Lloyds Banking Group. Continue reading...

Australian National Audit Office says nearly one in five payments to recipients are wrong despite Services Australia giving itself close to full marks

Boy band singer denies allegations made by woman known as AR, as well as those in two other sexual assault lawsuits currently filed against himNick Carter, singer with pop group Backstreet Boys, has been sued by a woman who alleges he sexually assaulted her, in the third such lawsuit he is currently facing.The woman, identified as AR", alleges that Carter assaulted her across three separate incidents in 2003 when she was 15 and he was 23, and that Carter gave her the sexually transmitted infection HPV. She is seeking $15,000 in damages. Continue reading...

Decision taken over claims that meetings were unfairly organised to support a particular factionLabour has suspended one of its most troubled constituency parties after allegations of rule-breaking in the run-up to the next general election, the Guardian can reveal.Leicester East constituency Labour party (CLP), which has been represented by the disgraced parliamentarians Keith Vaz and Claudia Webbe, is the subject of an internal investigation by the party's headquarters, senior sources have confirmed. Continue reading...

Mayor of northern town of Brandizzo speaks of chilling scene' after accident near TurinFive railway workers have been killed in northern Italy after being hit by a train while carrying out overnight maintenance work, Italian media reported on Thursday.Paolo Bodoni, the mayor of Brandizzo, told the AGI news agency an emergency worker had described to him a chilling scene, with human remains across 300 metres". Continue reading...

Seven children among dozens dead after blaze tears through building in South Africa's largest cityAt least 73 people, including seven children, have died in a fire in a multi-storey building in Johannesburg, South Africa's biggest city, emergency services have said.In one of the country's worst such tragedies in living memory, Emergency Management Services said a further 52 people were injured in the blaze, which broke out early on Thursday. Continue reading...

Kwasi Kwarteng will not be allowed to lobby British government in paid role as a senior adviser at Australian iron ore minerFormer British chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is due to start advising Fortescue on its clean energy ambitions from October - one year after his disastrous mini-budget crashed the pound.Kwarteng, who was sacked last year by then prime minister Liz Truss after only 38 days as chancellor, will provide advice in a part-time capacity to Fortescue's emerging clean energy division. Continue reading...

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Workplace relations minister says the minimal impact on consumers is a small price to pay for improving rider safety

Mini reshuffle expected as Wallace tells PM he is quitting to invest in the parts of life I have neglected'

Israeli paramedics treat three people, one critically wounded, after attack at busy checkpointA Palestinian motorist has driven a truck into pedestrians at a busy checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, wounding three people.The violence on Thursday comes a day after Israeli police shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who stabbed a man in a Jerusalem light railway station, and after Palestinian militants detonated a bomb near a convoy of Israeli troops escorting Jewish worshippers to a holy site in the occupied West Bank, wounding four soldiers. Continue reading...

Johnson & Johnson's year-long deal on life-saving drug bedaquiline is seen as critical move in campaign against diseaseThe cost of a crucial tuberculosis treatment has been halved after an agreement was made to allow the sale of generic versions of the drug.Johnson & Johnson's price for bedaquiline, considered the backbone of treatment for drug-resistant TB will drop from $289 (227) to $130 for a six-month course until December 2024. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: James Cleverly met senior Chinese officials for talks in Beijing - was there anything to gain? Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning, or perhaps (n ho). Hopefully James Cleverly got at least that far on Duolingo before the UK foreign secretary's plane touched down in Beijing this week on a trip aimed at resetting ties after a long period of tension over security, investment and human rights concerns at home and abroad.It was the first visit to China by a UK foreign secretary for five years. Remember the last time, when Jeremy Hunt somehow ended up announcing that his Chinese wife was Japanese? Very odd. Continue reading...

Police investigate fatal accident at Chiltern intersection and traffic has been diverted away from the area

Ryan Bayldon-Lumsden, 30, granted bail after supreme court in Brisbane hears of dead stepfather's alleged history of domestic violence

Only since Russian invasion have European leaders started to do necessary calculations, expert saysShe has extended the invitation multiple times but has yet to set a date for the welcome party. You are part of our family, your future is in our union, and our union is not complete without you," Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, last year told Ukraine and the nine other countries queuing patiently for EU membership.But as the prospect of Ukraine in particular joining the bloc looms closer, EU leaders are asking if the EU is ready for enlargement. Continue reading...

Labour viewed as better placed to tackle crisis but voters sceptical it is a priority for either partyLabour and the Conservatives have been accused of being out of step with public concern about the cost-of-living crisis, as polling suggested fewer than one in four people believed tackling it was a priority for the two parties.Swing voters from key demographics - Workington man and Stevenage woman, monikers campaign strategists have given to groups they are targeting - appear sceptical about the parties' proposals to ease cost pressures. Continue reading...

The competition watchdog's allegation follows Qantas executives' denials of so-called slot hoarding' at two parliamentary hearings

Winds reaching 209km/h recorded as major train lines suspended ahead of typhoon's expected arrival on FridayChina has issued the highest typhoon warning as Typhoon Saola crawled closer to the south-eastern coastline, threatening Hong Kong and other major manufacturing hubs in neighbouring Guangdong province.Chinese forecasters issued a typhoon red warning at 6am on Thursday. China's National Meteorological Centre said Saola, which lies about 295km (183 miles) south-east of Guangdong province, will move north-west across the South China Sea at a speed of about 10km/h (6mph), gradually approaching the coast of Guangdong, then slowly weaken in intensity. Continue reading...

Corporate regulator launches court action alleging former directors oversaw structure that left members vulnerable

James Hachem, 37, is serving a minimum 18-year prison term for the murder but investigators had been unable to find her body

The revised estimate for the scheme is contingent on completion by end of 2028 and may rise further if delays persist

Australian consumer watchdog launches legal action against Qantas alleging it engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct

Leading no campaigner links public debate over Indigenous voice referendum to his mental health struggles after prime minister promises positive' yes campaign

Group warns that if its financial performance continues to deteriorate' it faces possible default after huge half-year lossesEmbattled Chinese developer Country Garden reported a 48.9bn yuan ($6.7bn) loss for the first half of the year in a stock exchange filing on Wednesday, adding to worries of a potentially catastrophic default.Its tenuous state has sparked fears of a collapse that could have far-reaching consequences for the Chinese financial system two years after the fall of Evergrande. Continue reading...

Beekeepers at site near Toronto in Ontario eventually managed to recapture most of the insects, although some remained on the loosePolice near Toronto have warned drivers to keep their car windows closed after a truck spilled crates carrying five million bees on to a road.Halton regional police said they received a call about 6.15am on Wednesday reporting the bee crates had come loose from a truck and spilled on to a road in Burlington, Ontario. Continue reading...

Ukrainian drones strike six regions inside Russia, destroying military aircraft; Kremlin investigating whether plane carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin was downed on purposeUkrainian drones struck targets in at least six regions deep within Russia on Wednesday, in one of the largest-scale attacks on Russia in months. Drones hit an airport in the western Pskov region, and the regions of Moscow, Oryol, Bryansk, Ryazan and Kaluga.The strike on the city of Pskov started a fire and damaged four Il-76 military cargo aircraft, Russian authorities said, engulfing two of the planes in flames. Footage and images posted on social media showed smoke billowing over the city and the regional governor, Mikhail Vedernikov, ordered all flights to and from Pskov airport to be cancelled on Wednesday.Three drones came down in the Bryansk region, according to the Russian military, and two over the Oryol region, its governor, Andrei Klychkov, said. One came down in the Ryazan region, one more in Kaluga, and one more in the Moscow region, officials said. No damage or casualties were registered.At least two people were reported killed in Kyiv in what authorities described as the heaviest series of Russian airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital for months. Air defences shot down all 28 Russian missiles and 15 out of 16 drones, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, said on Wednesday.Six Ukrainian pilots were reportedly killed when two military helicopters crashed in the eastern Donetsk region. According to the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper, the two Mi-8 helicopters crashed in Kramatorsk on Tuesday. The aircraft were completely destroyed and the bodies of six dead servicemen were found.The chief official in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, said a cruise missile was fired at the peninsula on Wednesday. Anti-aircraft forces in eastern Crimea have downed a cruise missile," Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram and asked residents to remain calm.Russian investigators are considering the possibility that the plane carrying the Wagner mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin was shot down on purpose, the Kremlin said on Wednesday in the first explicit acknowledgment of what most already believed to have been an assassination. It is obvious that different versions are being considered, including ... a deliberate atrocity," the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.EU imports of Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) have increased by 40% since the invasion of Ukraine. Member states have bought more than half of Russia's LNG on the market in the first seven months of this year, according to analysis. Spain and Belgium, which acts as major gateways for LNG supplies to the EU, have emerged as the second and third-biggest customers of Russian LNG respectively after China.The Wagner group is expected to remain operational in Africa, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice-president of the European Commission said. They will remain operational in Africa because it is the armed wing of Russia," Josep Borrell said.Russia is in secret, active talks with North Korea to acquire a range of munitions and supplies, the White House has said. Arms negotiations between Russia and the DPRK are actively advancing," the White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said, adding that a key focus of the talks was artillery ammunition.Tech companies including TikTok and Twitter failed to effectively tackle Russian disinformation online during the first year of the war in Ukraine, according to a study published on Wednesday by the EU. The independent study for the EU comes after tougher rules under its Digital Services Act (DSA) kicked in this month for the world's biggest online platforms.The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and his Turkish counterpart will discuss a proposal by Moscow for an alternative to the Black Sea grain deal when they meet this week, Lavrov's ministry has said. Under the plan, Russia would send a million tonnes of grain to Turkey at a discounted price, with financial support from Qatar, to be processed in Turkey and sent to countries most in need, the foreign ministry said. Continue reading...

Psychiatrists say workforce gaps and tight implementation timeframe mean health system may not be ready for reforms to take effect Friday

Staff who fail re-vetting can also be sacked under UK government reforms of disciplinary systemPolice officers found guilty of gross misconduct face automatic dismissal while all staff who fail vetting can be sacked, under new government reforms of the disciplinary system.The measures are an attempt to restore the public's faith in policing in the wake of numerous controversies including serving firearms officer Wayne Couzens being convicted of the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard. Continue reading...

Offshore records suggest associates of wealthy Indian family spent years acquiring stock during rise of founder to be worth $120bnA billionaire Indian family with close ties to the country's prime minister, Narendra Modi, secretly invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the Indian stock market, buying its own shares, newly disclosed documents suggest.According to offshore financial records seen by the Guardian, associates of the Adani family may have spent years discreetly acquiring stock in the Adani Group's own companies during its meteoric rise to become one of India's largest and most powerful businesses. Continue reading...