Hanna Maliar says Kyiv’s forces are moving to ‘offensive actions’, heightening speculation that a counteroffensive is close to launch

Judge in case against Mirror Group Newspapers ‘a little surprised’ at prince’s non-appearancePrince Harry’s no-show at the high court on Monday caused a headache for his legal team, who were left to explain he had chosen to stay in Los Angeles for his daughter’s second birthday party.He was originally scheduled to give evidence in his phone-hacking trial against Mirror Group Newspapers on Tuesday. But the judge, Mr Justice Fancourt, had asked for him to be in court and ready to give evidence on Monday, in case lawyers finished their opening legal arguments earlier than expected. Continue reading...

Licht says ‘CNN is not about me’ after article revealed he had been aware of ‘extra-Trumpy’ crowd at town hallEmbattled CNN chief executive Chris Licht apologized to his employees on Monday after an Atlantic magazine profile revealed he had been aware of the “extra-Trumpy” make-up of the crowd at a widely criticized town hall with the former president last month.According to the Atlantic, Licht had also been critical of CNN’s performance under his predecessor, telling employees they had alienated potential viewers through hostility to Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Cabinet Office minister gives ‘absolute assurance’ ministers will not be involved in deeming what it irrelevant. This live blog is closedQ: Is there any evidence that your policies are responsible for crossings going down by 20%?Sunak says in the rest of Europe illegal migration arrivals are still going up. That is significant, he says. Continue reading...

Top UK music school says pandemic has hastened decline in pupils playing Marmite of woodwind worldDepending on your view, the recorder is an instrument of “incredible versatility” or a tool of torture that has terrorised primary schools for too many generations.But now, warn its champions, the Marmite of the woodwind world faces extinction, with one of the UK’s top music schools reporting an 80% decline in the number of young people playing the recorder in 10 years. Continue reading...

MP for Beckenham allegedly told activist to ‘go back to Bahrain’ during confrontation in DecemberThe Conservative MP Bob Stewart has been charged with a racially aggravated public order offence after an incident outside a reception hosted by the Bahraini embassy.Police launched an investigation into the south London MP after he was confronted by an activist whom he allegedly told: “Go back to Bahrain.” Continue reading...

Party officials say Andreas Babler won race, not Hans Peter Doskozil as previously declared due to Excel errorAustria’s Social Democratic party has admitted a “technical error” in an Excel file led to it announcing the wrong candidate as its new leader.Officials at the centre-left SPÖ said on Monday that Andreas Babler, the mayor of the south-eastern city of Traiskirchen, had in fact won the race, and not Hans Peter Doskozil, the governor of the south-eastern Burgenland region, who had been declared the winner on Saturday. Continue reading...

Matt Cook, who has written on queer urban life and the Aids crisis, takes up the new post at Mansfield CollegeThe renowned cultural historian Matt Cook is to become the UK’s first fully endowed professor of LGBTQ+ history in a newly created post at Mansfield College, Oxford.Cook, who has written extensively on queer urban life, the Aids crisis and queer domesticity, will become the first Jonathan Cooper chair of the history of sexualities later this year. Continue reading...

Andrew Green KC, for the Mirror, says the ‘designated hacker for the Mirror’ in the early 00s said he never attempted to hack duke’s phone. This live blog is closedThe court is taking a short break.There were also those around Prince Harry whose details appeared in PalmPilots (digital devices which were precursors to modern day tablets) owned by Mirror reporters, Sherborne says. Continue reading...

Mayors across country fear wave of cases after ruling that Brescia council failed to safeguard residentsMayors across Italy are fearing a deluge of legal complaints after the country’s top court ruled that noisy nightlife could be harmful to people’s health.In the first ruling of its kind in Italy, the supreme court of cassation ordered Brescia city council to pay €50,000 (£43,000) in compensation to a couple for failing to safeguard them against noise, reported Il Messaggero. Continue reading...

Accused among eight arrested after Jean-Baptiste Trogneux was beaten up outside family’s chocolate shopThree men have appeared in court in France accused of attacking Brigitte Macron’s great-nephew outside her family’s chocolate shop.The accused were among eight people arrested after Jean-Baptiste Trogneux, 30, was beaten up while reportedly trying to protect the windows of the store in Amiens in the Somme last month. Continue reading...

Survey is first major government study into what has been termed ‘the great gender pension chasm’

Girl A, who has accused eight men of grooming and abusing her, said she felt like ‘snake in the grass’ for coming forwardA woman who has accused eight men from Rochdale of grooming and abusing her as a child wept as she told police she used to consider one of the alleged abusers to be her “best friend”.The woman, known as Girl A to protect her identity, told detectives that she felt “like a snake in the grass” for accusing Jahn Shahid Ghani of abusing her when she was 14 and he was in his 30s. Continue reading...

Lawyer suggests then-editor, Piers Morgan, was disingenuous when he later wrote that he had ‘heard rumours’ about friendshipThe phone of Diana, Princess of Wale was allegedly hacked by Piers Morgan’s Daily Mirror in an attempt to obtain details about her secret meetings with the comedian Michael Barrymore.The high court heard that Diana had regularly talked to Barrymore in the months before her death, at a time when they were two of the most famous people in Britain. The television presenter was “struggling with coming out as gay”, as well as dealing with an addiction to alcohol and drugs. Continue reading...

Prime minister shows his fondness for helicopters again a week after flying in one to his Yorkshire constituencyRishi Sunak has taken an RAF helicopter from London to Dover, despite the trip being just over an hour by train.The UK prime minister once again showed his fondness for choppers on Monday, when he flew from a private helipad in London to the Kent port in an RAF AugustaWestland helicopter for a speech on small boat crossings. Continue reading...

Lawyer for bereaved families says Heather Hallett would be unable to do job if government blocks release

Retired seaman, who has 24 convictions, said he wanted to improve his pension by selling drugsA German court has given an 82-year-old man a “last warning” to avoid jail after he was found guilty of drug dealing, despite 24 previous convictions.The retired seaman, who said he wanted to improve his meagre €800 (£690) monthly pension by selling marijuana, was handed a suspended sentence by a court in the northern town of Aurich on Monday. Continue reading...

The director and veteran of Studio Ghibli plans to retire after the release of How Do You Live? which will forego trailers and marketing ahead of its Japanese release next monthHayao Miyazaki’s next and apparently final film will be released with no trailer, marketing or other new promotional materials, it has been revealed.In an interview with Japanese magazine Bungei Shunju, translated by the Hollywood Reporter, producer Toshio Suzuki said the film, titled How Do You Live?, would be released with “no trailers or TV commercials at all … no newspaper ads either.” He added: “Deep down, I think this is what moviegoers latently desire.” Continue reading...

Former health secretary given rap on knuckles for ‘lack of attention’ to MPs’ code of conduct

Russian military bloggers suggest Ukraine has made gains during latest assaults, but defending is always easier

Ministers accused of trying to shift blame for Friday’s disaster in which 275 people diedPolice in the Indian state of Odisha have registered a criminal case of “death by negligence” relating to the train collision on Friday that killed 275 people, as critics accused the government of trying to shift blame for the disaster.The report filed by police did not name any specific person as being responsible but stated that “culpability of specific railway employees has not been ascertained, which will be unearthed during the investigation”. Continue reading...

Russia claims to have fought off ‘major offensive’ and killed hundreds of Ukrainian troops in attack

Prime minister hails ‘substantial breakthrough’ for the pair after his visit to south-east Asia

St Mary’s hospital being investigated for gross negligence manslaughter after Polly Lindop died within 24 hours of birthA newborn baby’s death at a Manchester maternity hospital is being investigated by police for gross negligence manslaughter.Greater Manchester police (GMP) said its major incident unit was looking into the death of Polly Lindop who died within 24 hours of her birth on 13 March at St Mary’s hospital. Continue reading...

Australian National Audit Office finds department of health’s administration of community health program ‘fell short of ethical requirements’

Lt Col Roman Venevitin seen telling interrogator he ordered troops to shoot at convoy of mercenaries• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updatesYevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group of mercenaries has captured a Russian commander, as the notorious leader further escalates his feud with the regular army.In a video posted on Prigozhin’s social media channels on Monday evening, Lt Col Roman Venevitin, the commander of Russia’s 72nd Brigade, tells an interrogator that, while drunk, he had ordered his troops to fire on a Wagner convoy. Continue reading...

Annual vigil replaced by pro-Beijing carnival but some still manage to mark massacre amid heavy police presenceFor the past three years, Hong Kong authorities have gone to great lengths to stop people from lighting candles in Victoria Park and publicly commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre – an annual tradition tens of thousands of residents had kept alive for three decades since the bloody crackdown in 1989.This year, the city took it a step further. On Sunday, in place of a mass vigil was a patriotic carnival held by pro-Beijing groups, celebrating the city’s return to Chinese rule with food booths, and dance and music performances. Colourful banners urged carnival goers to “taste the joy”. Instead of candles, volunteers handed out plush toys. Continue reading...

This Morning presenter talks of having supported ‘someone who was not telling the truth’ about affairHolly Willoughby has said she felt “shaken, troubled and let down” over her co-host’s behaviour as she made her first This Morning appearance since Phillip Schofield left the show.Schofield quit after admitting he lied about an “unwise, but not illegal” affair with a younger member of the show’s staff. Continue reading...

Warring factions urged to preserve heritage after video clip appears to show fighters raiding Khartoum museumHeritage officials in Sudan have pleaded with warring factions to preserve tens of thousands of historical artefacts threatened by fighting in the capital, Khartoum, that is in its eighth week.A video clip circulating on social media on Friday appeared to show fighters from the Rapid Support Forces entering the bioarchaeology lab of the National Museum in Khartoum and opening storage containers containing mummies and other remains. Continue reading...

Record 19% of all loans taken out by first-time buyers in March were for 35 years or longer

Justice Anthony Besanko’s complete findings, released today, found the Victoria Cross recipient lied about murdering civilians, deliberately hid evidence from court and threatened potential witnesses

James Bethell says he supports legal challenge against inquiry’s demand for unredacted Johnson messages

Senator Deborah O’Neill has accused the firm of using the ‘cloak of the Senate’, and said names of those involved should be released publicly

Ten launches legal action against its former political editor, who quit the network in MarchPeter van Onselen has agreed to temporarily refrain from “disparaging” his former employer Network Ten after the network sued him for breach of contract.Van Onselen, a former host of The Project and Ten’s former political editor, quit the network in March to return full time to his role at the University of Western Australia as a politics and public policy professor. Continue reading...

Fair Work Ombudsman points to a culture where underpayment is rarely raised and there is ‘no systematic approach to reviewing claims’ if it is

Release comes after inquiry heard that Folbigg and her two daughters had rare genetic variation and her son may have died from an underlying neurogenetic disorder

Daniel Andrews says appointee’s views aren’t ‘incompatible’ with role – so he didn’t share them with Charles III

Justice Anthony Besanko’s 736-page judgment has been released after judge last week dismissed defamation case in favour of Nine newspapers and reporters

US military says its ship had to reduce speed to avoid a collision and accuses China of violating maritime rules of safe passage in international waterThe US military has released video of what it called an “unsafe” Chinese manoeuvre in the Taiwan Strait on the weekend, in which a Chinese navy ship cut sharply across the path of an American destroyer, forcing the US ship to slow to avoid a collision.The incident occurred on Saturday as the American destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal were conducting a so-called “freedom of navigation” transit of the strait between Taiwan and mainland China. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Campaigners say move bypasses legal process and puts at risk climate and pollution pledgesThe government faces a legal challenge to its decision to cut investment in walking and cycling in England, over claims that the move bypassed legal processes and risks scuppering commitments over the climate emergency and air pollution.Lawyers acting for the Transport Action Network (TAN), a campaign group, have written to the Department for Transport (DfT) to formally seek a judicial review of the cuts announced in March by Mark Harper, the transport secretary. Continue reading...

City’s industry alleges firms forcing through discounts and imposing financial penalties over small errorsLeicester’s garment makers have said they are in crisis as a growing number of fast-fashion brands are forcing through discounts, making last-minute cancellations and imposing financial penalties for what suppliers claim are tiny errors.In the east Midlands city – where manufacturers make clothes for a range of brands including Boohoo, Misguided and Frasers Group, the owner of Sports Direct and the online specialist Missguided – hundreds of garment businesses have shut in recent years, local organisations say, and suppliers warn that more are likely to follow. Continue reading...

Federal court hears some staff averaged shifts of 11 hours – above the award limit of nine-hour days

Campaigners hope a new law will show LGBT soldiers that the country they are risking their lives for cares about themThe Ukrainian MP Andrii Kozhemiakin is a wiry, conservative ex-spy who likes to emphasise his Christian faith and large family. He is also an unlikely new recruit in the fight for LGBT rights in Ukraine.A draft civil union law that would give same-sex partnerships legal status for the first time was introduced this year to Ukraine’s parliament, which is still functioning despite the war. Continue reading...

The man was on his way to work when he crashed into the escaped animals in Livingstone, police say

The film’s production designer Sarah Greenwood says ‘the world ran out of pink’ during construction of Barbieland and lifesize versions of the doll’s DreamhouseGreta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie film required so much pink paint during construction that it wiped out an entire company’s global supply.Speaking to Architectural Digest, Gerwig and the film’s production designer Sarah Greenwood, spoke about the construction of Barbieland, which is almost entirely fluorescent pink, from the lifesize versions of the doll’s famous “Dreamhouse” to the roads and lamp-posts. Continue reading...

Former political staffer suing national broadcaster over a February 2022 joint address by Higgins and Grace Tame at the National Press Club

Two schools in northern province targeted, says education official, who suggested the attacker was motivated by a personal grudgeNearly 80 girls were poisoned and hospitalised in two separate attacks at their primary schools in northern Afghanistan, a local education official said on Sunday.He said the person who orchestrated the poisoning had a personal grudge but did not elaborate. The attacks took place in Sar-e-Pul province over Saturday and Sunday. Continue reading...

The latest shaky truce between country’s army and RSF paramilitary came to an end on Saturday evening and has not been extendedFighting has intensified in several areas of Khartoum after a ceasefire deal expired, residents of Sudan’s capital reported, as activists said a new outburst of violence in North Darfur state had left at least 40 people dead.The ceasefire between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began on 22 May and expired on Saturday evening. Continue reading...

At least 20 people detained, including activist Alexandra Wong and leader of opposition party, as hundreds of police conduct stop and search operationsHong Kong police have detained more than 20 people, including prominent pro-democracy figures, on the 34th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown in China, while Chinese authorities tightened access to Tiananmen Square in central Beijing.Police in Hong Kong said late on Sunday they had detained 23 people between the ages of 20 to 74 who were suspected of “breaching the peace”. One woman, 53, was arrested for obstructing police officers. Continue reading...

Survivors want talent firm Johnny & Associates to fully investigate sexual abuse allegations against late founderPressure is building on one of Japan’s most powerful talent agencies to address allegations of sexual abuse by its founder, Johnny Kitagawa, as survivors and celebrities call for a public reckoning.Kitagawa, who died in 2019 aged 87, has been accused of sexually assaulting multiple boys, but it is claimed he evaded justice because his victims knew that speaking out would ruin their careers. Continue reading...