by William Christou in Beirut, Sufian Taha in Jerusal on (#6YKR7)
Ambulances were reportedly stopped from reaching Sayfollah Musallet after attack in which another Palestinian man was shot deadA 20-year-old Palestinian-American was killed by Israeli settlers while visiting relatives in the occupied West Bank, his family have said.Sayfollah Saif" Musallet was reportedly beaten by Israeli settlers while he was on his family's farm in an area near Ramallah. A group then prevented ambulances from reaching Musallet for three hours, according to the family, who said he died of his injuries before reaching hospital. Continue reading...
Electric Light Orchestra frontman withdraws from BST Hyde Park festival owing to a systemic infection'Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) frontman Jeff Lynne has cancelled what had been billed as his final ever performance, owing to ill health.Lynne was due to appear at the BST Hyde Park festival series on Sunday night, closing what had been the band's farewell Over and Out" tour, 55 years since the band formed. Continue reading...
Resident doctors have voted to strike over pay but how much has their real-terms earnings changed since 2008?Resident doctors in England have voted to strike for five days from 25 July, reigniting one of the NHS's most bitter industrial disputes.At the heart of the row is pay: the British Medical Association (BMA) says resident (formerly known as junior) doctors have seen their real earnings fall by more than a quarter since 2008. The government says the union's demands are unaffordable, and they've already received generous rises in recent years. Continue reading...
This live blog is now closedIsraeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including four children, hospital officials said on Saturday, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
Deputy PM accused of refusing to engage as union considers cutting ties with LabourAngela Rayner has been accused of handling the Birmingham bin workers' strike in a totally and utterly abhorrent" way by the Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham.Graham told BBC Radio 4 Today's programme: Angela Rayner refuses to get involved, and she is directly aiding and abetting the fire-and-rehire of these bin workers, it is totally and utterly abhorrent." Continue reading...
Militant group has become adept at exploiting successful attacks - and now needs all the leverage it can get for talksAs Hamas intensifies its insurgent campaign against Israeli forces in Gaza, it is focusing on a new aim: capturing an Israeli soldier.Last week, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sergeant was killed in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in an attempted abduction. Hamas militants also tried to take away the remains of 25-year-old Abraham Azulay but abandoned the effort when attacked by other Israeli forces. Continue reading...
by Hannah Al-Othman North of England correspondent on (#6YKNM)
Exclusive: Irish rap trio due to support Fontaines DC in August but it is understood they may be pulled over safety concerns'The Irish hip-hop band Kneecap may be dropped from the lineup at Wythenshawe Park in Manchester, where they are due to support Fontaines DC in August.It is understood that talks are in progress between Manchester city council, which runs the park, and the concert's promoter about whether the band should be pulled from the lineup, apparently over safety concerns". Continue reading...
Labour is being pulled one way by a desire to cut debt and the other by slumping poll ratings. With growth nowhere to be seen, tax rises loomDuring the first televised debate in the run-up to last summer's general election, Keir Starmer used a phrase that received enthusiastic - and unanticipated - applause from the Salford audience.I don't pretend there's a magic wand that will fix everything overnight," he told them. Labour strategists were surprised by the clapping, and encouraged him to deploy the line again in future. Continue reading...
by Kiran Stacey Political correspondent on (#6YKMQ)
Exclusive: MPs say in letter Gaza is being ethnically cleansed as Israeli defence minister plans forcible transfer'Nearly 60 Labour MPs have demanded the UK immediately recognises Palestine as a state, after Israel's defence minister announced plans to force all residents of Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah.The MPs, who include centrist and leftwing backbenchers, sent a letter to David Lammy on Thursday warning they believed Gaza was being ethnically cleansed. Continue reading...
by Kiran Stacey Political correspondent on (#6YKKM)
Exclusive: Young people deterred from politics, Rushanara Ali warns, as government plans stricter punishmentsMPs and political candidates are facing industrial" levels of intimidation and harassment, a minister has warned, as the government outlines plans for stricter punishments for those found guilty of abuse.Rushanara Ali, the minister for democracy, said her colleagues were suffering worse harassment than ever before and warned this was deterring many young people from becoming politically active. Continue reading...
by Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi, Nadeem Badshah and on (#6YKEY)
Early investigation into accident in Ahmedabad in June also contains details of pilots discussing the switchesFuel to both engines of the Air India plane that crashed and killed 260 people last month appears to have been cut off seconds after the flight took off, a preliminary report has found.Air India flight AI171, bound for London, crashed into a densely populated residential area in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on 12 June, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground. It was India's deadliest air crash in almost three decades. Continue reading...
Finance department says advertising not paused during or after AI bot's MechaHitler' outburst, as antisemitism envoy praises Musk-owned platform for rooting out hate'
by William Christou in Beirut and Malak A Tantesh in on (#6YK4X)
UN human rights office says 615 of the deaths were in vicinity of sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian FoundationAt least 798 people have been killed while seeking food at distribution points operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and other humanitarian convoys since the end of May, the UN human rights office said on Friday.The GHF, proposed by Israel as an alternative to the UN aid system in Gaza, has been almost universally condemned by rights groups for its violation of principles of humanitarian impartiality and what they have said could be complicity in war crimes. Continue reading...
Deputy PM targeted for role in Birmingham bin strikes but sources say she resigned her membership months agoAngela Rayner has made clear she will not be pushed around" by the Unite trade union after it voted to suspend her membership and rethink its ties with the party.The deputy prime minister was targeted for censure by the union over her role in the Birmingham bin strike, although party sources said Rayner resigned her membership of Unite some months ago. Continue reading...
Blair, 72, led the London force from 2005-08 and was made a life peer two years laterSir Ian Blair, the former Metropolitan police commissioner, has died aged 72.His death was confirmed on Friday by Christ Church college, University of Oxford, where Blair studied English and later became an honorary student. Continue reading...
Former chancellor says employees' contributions should rise to help address a 6bn shortfall caused by recent U-turnsThe Unite union has voted to re-examine its relationship with the Labour party in the light of the government's failure to support its members in the Birmingham bin strike.It has also said it was suspending Angela Rayner's membership, given her role as minister in charge of the department that oversees local government. The union is in dispute with Birmingham city council over proposals to reorganise waste disposal services in the city, and Unite has repeatedly said the government should step in and force the Labour-led council to settle.Unite is crystal clear it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette. Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council, is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises. Continue reading...
Ex-PM among those saying they will take legal action over covert' plans to return sculptures to GreeceThe former British prime minister Liz Truss and a hard-right lobby group have been accused of stoking culture wars after putting their names to a letter claiming they would take legal action over alleged covert" plans to return the Parthenon marbles to Greece.The letter, addressed to Keir Starmer and the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, as well as trustees of the British Museum, was organised by a rightwing campaign group called Great British Pac, led by the Conservative activist Claire Bullivant and the former Reform deputy co-leader Ben Habib, who was ousted from the party by Nigel Farage. Continue reading...
by Robyn Vinter North of England correspondent on (#6YK4Y)
Northumbria police say two men are in custody after death of woman in her 80s and another in her 90sTwo care home residents have died after a car police were chasing crashed into their building in Sunderland.Ten residents were taken to hospital after the stolen BMW collapsed a large part of a wall and part of the first storey of Highcliffe care home in Witherwack. Continue reading...
Donald Trump said overnight that group of US trading partners, including the bloc, would get a letter today or tomorrow'Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, condemned as a desecration of historical truth" new plaques near a Polish monument to the wartime Jedwabne massacre of Jews by their Polish neighbours, AFP reported.The plaques, crowdfunded and placed by the far-right on a private plot in vicinity of the official memorial just before of the 84th anniversary of the massacre, question the official findings and falsely claim that the crime was committed by a German pacification unit" instead of local Poles. Continue reading...
Burning of boat containing dark-skinned mannequins in lifejackets in Moygashel draws widespread condemnationPolice in Northern Ireland are investigating a loyalist bonfire that featured effigies of refugees sitting in a boat as a hate incident.Crowds in the County Tyrone village of Moygashel cheered on Thursday night when the towering pyre was lit and flames engulfed the vessel and a dozen dark-skinned, lifesize mannequins with lifejackets. Continue reading...
Country's navy announced seizure of uncrewed narco sub, first capture of such a vessel in Colombian watersThe bust was unusual - a narco submarine capable of carrying more than 1.5 tons of cocaine. There were no drugs onboard this time, but most notably, there were no traffickers.Last week, the Colombian navy announced that it had seized an autonomous semisubmersible", the first seizure of such a vessel in the country's waters. Continue reading...
Woodland Trust's 10 nominees from across the country highlight how trees inspire creative mindsA cedar tree climbed by the Beatles, an oak that may have inspired Virginia Woolf and a lime representing peace in Northern Ireland are among those shortlisted for tree of the year 2025.Voting opens on Friday for the Woodland Trust's annual competition, which aims to celebrate and raise awareness of rare, ancient or at-risk trees across the UK. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#6YJS5)
Exclusive: Tom Dolphin says rise needed to redress real-terms earnings loss since 2008 and strikes could last yearsResident doctors' 29% pay claim is non-negotiable, reasonable and easily affordable for the NHS, the new leader of the medical profession has said.Strikes to ensure resident - formerly junior - doctors in England get the full 29% could drag on for years, according to Dr Tom Dolphin, the British Medical Association's new council chair. Continue reading...
by Jessica Murray Social affairs correspondent on (#6YJNP)
Black people also less likely than white people to get social housing and can face overt racism' from private landlordsBlack people in England are almost four times as likely to face homelessness as white people and substantially less likely to get social housing, according to the first major study into homelessness and racism in more than two decades.A three-year research project by academics at Heriot-Watt University found that ethnicity affects a person's risk of homelessness, even when controlling for factors such as geography, poverty and home ownership rates. Continue reading...
Public accounts committee warns UK infrastructure risked becoming stony ground' for investors without major overhaulBad management of private finance contracts is leading to poor quality assets being handed back to the government, including schools and hospitals, according to parliament's spending watchdog.Its report into the use of private finance initiatives (PFI) for infrastructure comes at a time when the government has identified private investment in projects such as power plants and transport outside London as a key part of its growth agenda. Continue reading...
Starmer says in exchange for every migrant returned, another migrant will be allowed to enter the UK legally. This live blog is closedSky News is now broadcasting remarks from Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron at their summit in Downing Street.Starmer says the situation in the Channel cannot go on as it is now.We all agree the situation in the channel cannot go on as it is. So we're bringing new tactics into play and a new level of intent to tackle illegal migration and break the business model of the criminal gangs.In uncertain times, we achieve more by strengthening our relationship with our allies, so that is what today is all about working together on the priorities that we share as two nations.For us, it's about delivering the changes that the British people want to see, and we will agree the situation in the Channel cannot go on as it is. So we're bringing new tactics into play and a new level of intent to tackle illegal migration and break the business model of the criminal gangs ...An estimated 7.36 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of May, relating to just under 6.23 million patients - down from 7.39 million treatments and just over 6.23 million patients at the end of April.These are the lowest figures since March 2023 for treatments and April 2023 for patients.Monthly NHS data shows the overall waiting list dropped by nearly 30,000 in May to 7.36 million - the lowest total since March 2023 - with 60.9% waiting 18 weeks or less for planned care (the highest proportion since July 2022).Staff carried out an average of 75,009 planned treatments each working day in May - the highest number on record - with a total of 1.5 million treatments across the month, which is up on 1.45 million in April and higher than 1,437,914 pre-pandemic (May 2019). Continue reading...
Government has halted possible public contract bans for seven firms to avoid prejudicing criminal inquiriesSurvivors and bereaved families of the Grenfell Tower fire have accused the government of incompetence or outright indifference" after it paused investigations into possible public contract bans for firms criticised in connection with the 2017 blaze that killed 72 people.Five months after announcing it was to look at seven firms with the possibility of banning them from public contracts, ministers confirmed a pause on Thursday to prevent any impact on criminal investigations". Continue reading...
Ukraine president says he has held constructive talks with Trump and that European allies will help pay for Patriot systemsZelenskyy also repeatedly thanks partners for their help so far, saying it is thanks to their help it was able to start building a modern air force.We've done it in record time. No other country has switched from Soviet aircraft to F-16 and Mirages this quickly," he says.I urge all our partners: increase your investments when Russia increases its attacks. Continue reading...
ECHR rules South African runner did not have fair trial on need to lower testosterone levels to compete in women's sportThe South African runner Caster Semenya has called for athletes' rights to be better protected after Europe's top human rights court ruled that she had not been given a fair trial when she contested a policy that required her to lower her testosterone levels in order to compete in women's sport.The decision, handed down on Thursday by the European court of human rights, was the latest twist in the two-time Olympic gold medallist's extraordinary legal battle. Continue reading...
Heaton Park gigs will have double fence and security patrols but TikTokers are offering advice on gaining entryOasis fans have been warned that the band's homecoming gigs at Heaton Park in Manchester will be protected by a double fence with security patrolling in between after TikTok users offered advice on how to break into the concerts.Suggestions in videos on the social networking site included climbing trees to scale the fence, and swimming across a boating lake at the park. Continue reading...
Charity says system is failing to support children at a young age and points to Covid as contributing factorMore than 10,000 children were excluded from England's state schools last year, alongside record numbers of suspensions involving pupils younger than six or with special needs, as teachers struggled to cope with worsening behaviour.The figures for the 2023-24 academic year revealed that the number of permanent exclusions leapt up by 16% compared with the year before, while the total number of suspension days rose by 21% to 955,000. Continue reading...
Four arrested on suspicion of breaching Computer Misuse Act, blackmail, money laundering and joining activities of organised crimeFour people have been arrested at addresses in the West Midlands, Staffordshire and London as part of an investigation into a trio of cyber-attacks on Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods.The National Crime Agency said two 19-year-old men, a 17-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman had been apprehended on suspicion of breaching the Computer Misuse Act, blackmail, money laundering and joining the activities of organised crime. Continue reading...
Police reportedly write to women allegedly assaulted by late Harrods owner, apologising that he will never directly face justice'Women allegedly assaulted by the late Mohamed Al Fayed feel let down by police investigators, their advocate has said, as she criticised the Met for planning to resort" to sending a video to keep them updated.The comments by Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, who was appointed by Harrods as an independent survivors' advocate, came as it was reported the Metropolitan police had written to the women apologising for the distress they had suffered, especially as Fayed would never face justice. Continue reading...
Retired rocker creates artworks to raise funds for Florida sanctuary for rescued apesFresh from his retirement concert with Black Sabbath at the weekend, Ozzy Osbourne has announced a new project: a visual art collaboration with chimpanzees.Osbourne is a keen amateur painter, and for his latest works he painted multicoloured base coats on to five canvases, with the chimpanzees then adding daubs of their own. Continue reading...
Pair accused of spying on Neptune missile programme, which is seen as critical to defence against RussiaUkraine says it has arrested a Chinese father and son on suspicion of spying on its Neptune anti-ship missile programme, a key part of Kyiv's growing domestic arms industry that is critical to its defence against Russian forces.The announcement by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) follows assertions by Kyiv in recent months that Beijing, which has sought to project an image of neutrality, is helping the Kremlin's war effort. Continue reading...
Deliveries will also alternate on weekdays as Ofcom says ruling reflects changing behaviour of usersRoyal Mail has been given the green light to drop Saturday deliveries of second-class letters and provide services only on alternating weekdays from Monday to Friday under new rules announced by the regulator.Ofcom said that reforms of the universal services obligation (USO) reflected changing behaviour of postal users, with fewer letters being sent across the country. The regulator said it could end up saving the postal delivery service between 250m and 425m each year. Continue reading...
In today's newsletter: As a new Guardian project begins, we hear from the teenagers navigating deprivation, isolation and a sense of being forgottenGood morning. A few weeks ago, 18-year-old Tamsin Jarman-Smith, born and raised in a small town just outside Blackpool, sat on a battered sofa at House of Wingz, a community youth organisation tucked down an alleyway a few streets from the beach, and explained what it felt like to be a young person growing up in a coastal town.I'm lucky because I found this passion for dancing and I come to this place, which has saved me I think, especially my creativity and hope for opportunities for myself, but lots of people my age feel like there is nothing here for them," she said.Europe | Talks over a British and French migration deal remained deadlocked on Wednesday night, as negotiators haggled over how much Britain will pay towards the cost of policing small boat crossings.UK news | Campaigners have decried as dangerously naive" the UK government's sweeping deal with Google to provide free technology to the public sector.Europe | Police have raided the headquarters of France's far-right National Rally and seized documents as part of an investigation into alleged illegal campaign financing.UK news | Thames Water has refused to claw back almost 2.5m paid to senior managers from an emergency loan that was meant to keep the failing utilities company afloat.Housing | The Bank of England has rolled out looser mortgage rules that policymakers hope will help 36,000 more first-time buyers on to the housing ladder each year. Continue reading...
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