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Some members of justice group pull out from art project over lack of input in formal pandemic inquiry

Tory senior treasurer Mansour says he wants to assist ‘very capable prime minister’ Rishi Sunak

DfT tells operators wifi is low priority for travellers and they need to justify business case for itTrain passengers face losing access to wifi after the government told rail companies to stop providing the service unless they can demonstrate its business case.The move is being pushed by the Department for Transport (DfT) in order to cut costs as it looks to “reform all aspects of the railway”. Continue reading...

Home secretary confirms she has accepted points on her licence but denies breaking ministerial codeSuella Braverman has insisted that “nothing untoward happened” over claims she broke the ministerial code in allegedly asking civil servants to assist over a speeding fine.Her comments came after No 10 confirmed Rishi Sunak has spoken to his ethics adviser over the issue, although no formal inquiry has yet begun. Continue reading...

Indian presidency of group becomes mired in controversy as tourism session hosted in disputed territoryIndia’s presidency of the G20 group of leading nations has become mired in controversy after China and Saudi Arabia boycotted a meeting staged in Kashmir, the first such gathering since India unilaterally brought Kashmir under direct control in August 2019.The meeting, a tourism working group attended by about 60 delegates from most G20 countries taking place from Monday to Wednesday, required a large show of security at Srinagar international airport. Continue reading...

Fire began shortly after midnight at school serving mostly Indigenous young people aged 12-18, say officialsAt least 20 pupils have been killed in a fire in a school dormitory in Guyana, authorities have said.The Guyanese government said in a press statement that the fire broke out in the dormitory building of a secondary school in the south-western border town of Mahdia, 200 miles (320km) south of the capital, Georgetown. Continue reading...

State bailed out lender, formerly known as RBS Group, in near-£46bn deal during 2008 financial crisisThe UK government has sold a £1.26bn stake in NatWest, taking the state’s shareholding below 40% for the first time since the bank’s emergency bailout in 2008.It marks the sixth block sale of NatWest shares since the financial crisis, and brings the government one step closer to returning NatWest to full private ownership. Continue reading...

Transmission lines in the US need to be increased threefold, but faces pushback from fossil conservation and green groupsAmerica’s renewable energy drive needs more than a million miles of new transition lines but emerging resistance includes opponents worried about building them in one of the country’s richest areas of ice-age fossils.The Greenlink West project would build a 470-mile-long transmission line bringing clean electricity north to Reno in Nevada, but it cuts through an area containing everything from woolly mammoth tusks to giant sloths to ancient camels. Continue reading...

Labels will alert people to calories, risk of cancer and liver disease and dangers of drinking while pregnantIreland is to become the first country in the world to mandate health labelling on alcoholic drinks to alert people to calorie content, grams of alcohol, risks of cancer and liver disease and dangers of drinking while pregnant.The health minister, Stephen Donnelly, signed the legislation on Monday and said he looked forward to other countries following the example – a prospect that has worried Italy’s winemakers and people in several other EU member states. Continue reading...

British Medical Association to put government offer to hospital doctors, who had voted to take strike actionHospital doctors in Scotland have been offered a cumulative 14.5% pay rise in a fresh attempt by Scottish ministers to avert highly disruptive strikes.Junior doctors had voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in Scotland for the first time after rejecting the original Scottish government offer, in a dispute closely mirroring the industrial action by doctors in English hospitals. Continue reading...

Typhoon projected to affect US territory of Guam as early as Tuesday. Elsewhere, Europe is heating upOver the weekend, a rapidly intensifying region of thunderstorms in the western Pacific culminated in the formation of Typhoon Mawar.The movement of this storm is projected to affect the Mariana Islands, including the US territory of Guam, as early as Tuesday. There is a risk of wind speeds above 75mph, with torrential rain. Continue reading...

Law Enforcement Conduct Commission reveals details of 157 ‘critical incident’ investigations

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Concerns security deal could leave Papua New Guinea stuck between increasingly hostile US and ChinaThe US has signed a security pact with Papua New Guinea despite concerns within the country about increasing militarisation as Washington competes with Beijing for influence in the Pacific.The state department said the new agreement would provide $45m (£36m) to help improve security cooperation, including protective equipment for the Papua New Guinea defence force, plus help in mitigating the effects of the climate crisis, transnational crime and HIV/Aids. Continue reading...

Scottish islanders fear complete isolation as vital mail deliveries fail to arrive for days, sometimes weeksThe allure of the Isle of Mull is its sense of apartness. In summer, flocks of tourists make the 45-minute crossing from the mainland to sample life on the edge. From the point of view of its 3,000 residents, modern transport and communications have brought them closer to the rest of the country than ever. But now, thanks to Royal Mail, islanders fear they are being returned to isolation.For the last three years, parts of Mull have been cut off from mail deliveries for days. Since March, those days have turned into weeks. Continue reading...

UK museum of the year award has shortlist of five showing ‘astonishing ambition and boundless creativity’A museum on a small island in Orkney that became the Royal Navy’s nerve centre during both world wars has been shortlisted for museum of the year.The Scapa Flow Museum tells the story of how the island of Hoy became essential to Britain’s defence with the construction of a large naval base. It reopened last year after a £4.4m redevelopment. Continue reading...

Minister attacks ‘scare campaign’ after opposition leader says plan would ‘re-racialise’ Australia

‘Extradition in this case is a matter of life and death,’ campaigner tells National Press Club

Communications minister says there is ‘serious’ community concern about ads as Zoe Daniel makes push for ban

Europe’s largest airline says it is optimistic it will make even more this year after ordering more aircraftRyanair has bounced back to a near-record €1.4bn (£1.2bn) profit last year and expects to better that in 2023, fuelled by a summer boom in which the low-cost airline will carry a record number of passengers.Europe’s largest airline swung back to profit in the year to the end of March after reporting a €355m loss in the previous year. The company, led by the chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said it was cautiously optimistic that it will increase profits again this year, which could result in it topping the record €1.45bn Ryanair made in 2018. Continue reading...

Diggers move in as police and gendarmes launch operation against sub-standard housing and illegal migrationAuthorities on the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte have begun demolishing homes in an operation against sub-standard housing and illegal migrationFrance has deployed hundreds of police officers and gendarmes in Mayotte – the country’s poorest department – since April to prepare a major security measure called Operation Wuambushu (“Take Back” in the local language). Continue reading...

Queensland government is seeking to change law that prevents a person charged with sexual offences from being named until they are committed to stand trial

52-year-old, in hospital for more than a year after bike accident, wants to be repatriated but is not listed as a resident in SwedenA Swedish woman left paralysed after a catastrophic bike accident has been stranded in a London hospital for more than a year after efforts to repatriate her to her home country failed due to Stockholm bureaucracy.The situation, described by her husband as “shameful”, comes following a similar case in which authorities threatened to deport a 74-year-old British woman with Alzheimer’s because of strict adherence to Brexit red tape. Continue reading...

Commission says corporations and forestry companies competing for estates are driving up prices in already squeezed marketLand ownership in Scotland is at risk of becoming more elitist and unequal because wealthy corporations and forestry companies are dramatically driving up land prices, a new study has warned.The report from the Scottish Land Commission found that a significant number of Highland estates and hill farms were sought by corporations last year as an investment or as sites for planting new conifer plantations. Continue reading...

MPs back new bill for medical graduates, designed to limit brain drain to countries including the UK and USA new bill to impose five years’ mandatory service on Nigeria’s medical graduates in an effort to stop the exodus of doctors to the UK and the US has been attacked as “obnoxious”.The bill, which could be put to a public hearing in the next few days, passed its second reading in the Nigerian parliament’s lower house last month. Continue reading...

Walter Sofronoff KC tells inquiry he had written to the editor of the Australian to understand why the paper ran photograph of Shane Drumgold on page one, but conceded it might serve a valid journalistic purpose

AFP’s Scott Moller says he charged Lehrmann on advice of DPP despite investigators not thinking Brittany Higgins’s allegations reached threshold for prosecution

Which? magazine also lists fake missing person appeals among most widely used deceptionsDating cons known as “pig butchering”, fake missing person appeals and dodgy apps are among the most widely used and convincing scams in circulation this year, according to Britain’s leading consumer watchdog.Pig butchering – so-called by fraudsters because they “fatten up” the victim by forming a romantic connection before executing the investment part of the scam – has been flagged by Which? magazine as one of the most pernicious scams. Continue reading...

Co-author says UK’s oldest form of social housing could be part of solution to care crisisPoor, older people living in almshouses enjoy longer lives than far wealthier people living elsewhere, a study has found.The secret to longer life has been intensely sought after for centuries. But research using data from almshouses going back 100 years has found that the solution devised in early medieval times to help poverty-stricken knights returning from the Crusades is still relevant today. Continue reading...

Forty-year-old, who was raising money for Spinal Cord Injuries Australia, spent years recovering from a spinal injury after being told he might never walk again

Intellectual Property Office rules that New Zealand beekeepers’ attempt to stop Australian producers using the name did not meet necessary requirementsNew Zealand honey producers have lost their latest battle to trademark mānuka honey, the latest blow in a years-long fight to stop Australian beekeepers using the lucrative name.The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand ruled on Monday that New Zealand mānuka beekeepers’ attempt for a trademark did not meet necessary requirements, and the term mānuka was descriptive. Continue reading...

Woman, 95, is surrounded by family and still in critical condition as calls grow for broader investigation of police treatment of dementia sufferers

Freese, who previously played at tribute concerts for Hawkins, was announced as the new drummer in a starry, tongue-in-cheek livestreamFoo Fighters have unveiled their new drummer after the death of their former percussionist Taylor Hawkins: the veteran session musician Josh Freese.Freese has accrued a long and star-studded list of credits over his three-decade career. The 50-year-old drummer has been a member of Devo since 1996 and the Vandals since 1989. He has also toured with the Offspring, Guns N’ Roses, Danny Elfman, Weezer, Sting, Paramore, Nine Inch Nails and 100 Gecs. Continue reading...

Ukraine’s leader knows he needs to win over nonaligned countries such as Brazil and India to increase the pressure on RussiaNormally G7 summits are about battling for the free world comma by comma, as diplomats parse lengthy communiques of ephemeral significance long into the night. Words, after all, constitute much of a diplomat’s work.At the Hiroshima G7 some of the communiques emerging from the summit do matter, notably the toolbox on de-risking trade with China, but the true significance of the summit lay in Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s scene-stealing visit courtesy of a ride in Emmanuel Macron’s French aircraft. Continue reading...

Scathing review finds the only time the network ran in line with its targets was during periods of lockdown or other Covid restrictions

Move to power Glenbrook steel plant with electricity from renewables rather than coal will reduce emissions by 1% – or the equivalent of taking 300,000 cars off the roadNew Zealand has announced its largest emissions reduction project in history, transitioning from coal to renewable electricity at the country’s major steel plant in a move that the government says is equivalent to taking 300,000 cars off the road.The government will spend $140m on halving the coal used at Glenbrook steel plant to recycle scrap steel, replacing that generating power with an electric-powered furnace. The plant will contribute $160m to the project’s cost. Continue reading...

Officers were responding to a domestic violence-related incident in Grange on Sunday afternoon

Under government reforms, schemes to be regulated as credit products in Australia

Survey of 236 young people caught up in 2017 blast shows 29% have not received any mental health support

Bread and Roses, co-produced by Lawrence, documents lives of three women after Taliban’s return to powerA documentary about the lives of three women living under the Taliban, co-produced by Jennifer Lawrence, has premiered at the Cannes film festival.Bread and Roses, shown at a special screening on Sunday, follows three Afghan women in the weeks after the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 after the withdrawal of US troops. Continue reading...

Labour leader to say plan for reforming NHS will focus on ‘biggest killer of young lives in this country’A Labour government would reverse the rise in the number of deaths from suicide as part of a health plan to replace pain and anxiety with a “hope of a renewed NHS”, Keir Starmer will pledge.In a speech on Monday, the Labour leader will say his plan for reforming the NHS will focus on the biggest causes of death in the UK including suicide.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org. Continue reading...

Hari Budha Magar reached the peak despite being a double amputee since an explosion in AfghanistanA Gurkha soldier veteran who lost both legs in Afghanistan has achieved mountaineering history after reaching the top of Mount Everest.Hari Budha Magar, who lives in Canterbury, Kent, reached the summit of the world’s tallest mountain at 3pm on Friday, having started the climb on 17 April – exactly 13 years since he lost his legs after an IED explosion. Continue reading...

Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s party on 40% share against Syriza on 20%, with more than 90% of votes countedGreece’s general election has failed to produce a winner despite the centre-right party of the incumbent prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, clinching 40% of the vote with more than 90% of ballots counted.New Democracy was leading with a 20-point margin – 40.8% – over the leftist main opposition Syriza party which was trailing at just over 20.1% – a difference rarely seen since the collapse in 1974 of military rule. Even in Crete, a socialist bastion, the rightwing party had fared unexpectedly well. Continue reading...

Home secretary has won little good will from colleagues since she was last – briefly – forced from officeWhen Suella Braverman’s career as home secretary was last on the ropes – for sending an official document from her personal email in a serious breach of the rules – she received little support from cabinet minsters. “She’s a joke,” one said at the time. “She shouldn’t be anywhere near high office.”Yet within six days she was back in the job, after Rishi Sunak calculated that it was worth reinstating the leading rightwinger to the Home Office to win her support for the Tory leadership bid which brought him to No 10. Continue reading...

Kat Watkins, who requires a ventilator at night, said she is suffering from severe back pain after night at Travelodge in HounslowA disabled wheelchair user who requires a ventilator at night had to sleep on a sofa in a hotel dining room because the accessible room she booked was not available.Kat Watkins, 36, a UN convention on the rights of disabled people development officer at Disability Wales, who has brittle bone disease and sleep apnoea, said she is suffering from severe back pain as a result of not being able to sleep in the bed she had booked and paid for at a Travelodge hotel in Hounslow. Continue reading...

No 10 appears to distance itself from home secretary amid growing political storm about possible breach of ministerial codeRishi Sunak is under intense pressure to launch an investigation into whether Suella Braverman broke the ministerial code by requesting a private speed awareness course, as Downing Street appeared to distance itself from the beleaguered home secretary.The prime minister arrives back from the G7 summit in Japan to a growing political storm over whether Braverman breached strict rules by asking Home Office civil servants for special treatment after she was caught breaking the speed limit. Continue reading...

Volodymyr Zelenskiy says during Japan visit that Ukrainian troops are still in eastern city at centre of bloody battle; Moscow calls summit a ‘politicised’ eventA Russian-installed official in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region said that Kyiv had struck the Russian-held port city of Berdyansk with British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles, Reuters reports.

Temporary hosts will take on presenting duties as Phillip Schofield tries to keep hold of his broadcasting careerAlison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary have been announced as temporary presenters of ITV’s This Morning, as former host Phillip Schofield battles to save his television career.Schofield announced on Saturday he would step down from presenting the daytime talkshow with immediate effect, after ITV bosses told him “the current situation can’t go on” following weeks of damaging news stories. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Home secretary’s aides repeatedly requested she be allowed to miss vote on major legislation despite three-line whipSuella Braverman tried to get out of the final Commons vote on the government’s small boats bill despite Conservative MPs being instructed to attend, the Guardian has learned.The home secretary’s aides sent multiple emails over the course of several days to the Tory whips’ office requesting that she be “slipped”, or permitted to miss, the third reading of her department’s flagship legislation. Continue reading...

‘Bakhmut is only in our hearts. There is nothing ... just ruins and dead Russians,’ says Ukraine’s president