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Analysis: Some see him as a typical Tory, but community groups say his ascent to No 10 would be a British milestoneIf Rishi Sunak wins an uphill battle against Liz Truss in the weeks to come, he will join the small number of black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) leaders of majority-white countries in the west. They include Barack Obama in the US, Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, who is partly of Goan descent, and Leo Varadkar, the former Irish prime minister whose father is Indian.When Sadiq Khan became the first Muslim leader of any western capital city, it made headlines around the world. The ascent of Sunak, the son of Hindu Indian emigrants, would be an equal “milestone moment” reflecting Britain’s diversity, community groups have said. Continue reading...

Lithuania lifts rail ban on goods transport to Kaliningrad; three bodies recovered from Kramatorsk school attack

Readings above 40C expected on Saturday with some cities at highest alert level and warnings of dam failures due to melting glaciersChina is set for the return of more heatwaves over the next 10 days, with temperatures set to start spiking in parts of the country on Saturday.Some coastal cities are already on their highest alert level and inland regions warning of dam failure risks because of melting glaciers. Continue reading...

Vaccine inequity and emerging variants mean the future of the pandemic is increasingly uncertain, researchers say

Services report 279 ‘actively homeless’ people in SA as ministers meet to address national housing crisis

Residents of the New Zealand city have the world’s most extreme vocal changes when speaking to babies, a study has foundFrom small tribes in the remote Pacific islands to the teeming cities of China, humans share the common language of baby talk – but new research has discovered that Wellington, New Zealand, is the global capital of cooing.An international study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, collected 1615 recordings of 410 people from 21 societies speaking and singing to an adult and then a baby in more than a dozen languages. Continue reading...

Members of RMT union will strike next week after talks over pay, jobs and conditions broke downA planned strike of over 40,000 workers at Network Rail and more than a dozen train companies will go ahead next week, after the latest talks broke down.Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at 14 train operating companies and Network Rail will go on strike on Wednesday 27 July in a dispute about pay, jobs and conditions. Continue reading...

Analysis: demand is desperate but ships, crew, insurance and shipping lanes all need preparingThe agreement to move Ukraine’s grain may have been signed, but the challenge of moving millions of tonnes from blockaded Black Sea ports is only just beginning.On Friday, Ukraine and Russia signed a UN-backed deal to allow Ukraine’s wheat, maize and oilseeds to be shipped amid fears over a global food crisis. Continue reading...

Kent port apologises for delays and blames French border control as summer getaway kicks offHolidaymakers have been warned chaos that triggered six-hour queues at Dover could spill into the weekend, after the port declared a “critical incident” that it blamed on “woefully inadequate” French border control staffing.The Kent port apologised to travellers facing long waits to cross the Channel on an extremely busy day for travel across the UK, as schools across England and Wales break up for the holidays. Continue reading...

‘Truss is mental and will be found out,’ says supporter of former chancellor as he launches fightback in GranthamRishi Sunak will launch his fightback in the Conservative leadership race from Margaret Thatcher’s birthplace this weekend, with his supporters urging party members to delay voting until they have seen him take on Liz Truss in more debates.Sunak’s campaign team is drawing up plans to try to reverse what one called a “worrying trend” after Truss pulled ahead by 24 percentage points in polling of party members. About 160,000 members will have the chance to decide the next prime minister when they receive ballots from 1-5 August. They can cast their votes immediately or wait until closer to the 1 September deadline. Continue reading...

A couple are under house arrest after a 30-year-old man died during a private party at a house in Karmi YosefPolice in Israel have placed a couple under house arrest, a day after a man attending a party at their villa died after being sucked into a sinkhole that formed at the bottom of their swimming pool.The man and woman, both in their sixties, are suspected of causing death by negligence, police said. They were arrested on Thursday night and a court decided to release them Friday under “restrictive conditions of house arrest” for five days. Continue reading...

Russia edges closer to de facto capital of Donetsk as Ukraine claims at least 1,888 schools and nurseries destroyed in warRussian forces have shelled a school building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, leaving three dead, according to Ukraine’s authorities.The school was destroyed in the attack, video footage shows, and 85 residential buildings were damaged, said Ukraine’s presidential office. Continue reading...

Sebastian Kalinowski died after weeks of abuse by Agnieszka Kalinowska and Andrzej Latoszewski, Leeds jury toldA woman and her partner have been found guilty of murdering her 15-year-old son following a campaign of “utterly horrific and prolonged” torture.Sebastian Kalinowski died in hospital on 13 August 2021 of an infection caused by “untreated complications of multiple rib fractures”, following weeks of abuse and assaults by his mother, Agnieszka Kalinowska, 35, and her long-term partner, Andrzej Latoszewski, 38. Continue reading...

Holidaymakers and people travelling to visit family have found themselves stuck in six-hour queues to board ferriesBarbara and Zeger Degroot picked the Isle of Wight over the Alps for their summer holiday this year as they wanted a shorter drive from their home in the Netherlands. With one child in the back, one in the front and two – including a newborn baby – in the middle, it had seemed like a wise option – until they encountered six-hour queues at Dover port on their way back.“It’s not ideal,” said Barbara, adding that they had been on the road since 6.30am on Friday and did not expect to arrive home until late at night after missing their noon ferry, and were still stuck in queues outside the main port area at nearly 2pm. Continue reading...

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Russia and Ukraine sign deal to resume Black Sea grain exports; Google banned in occupied Donetsk for allegedly promoting ‘terrorism’

Activists demand help for vulnerable as cost of living and public health emergency put more people on streetsA homeless charity has called on activists and supporters to march through Belfast on Saturday to protest against a sharp increase in the number of people dying on the streets of Northern Ireland’s capital.The mayor, Tina Black, council party group leaders and statutory agencies met on Friday to discuss a crisis in which an estimated 14 people have died in recent months. Approximately nine were found dead on the street, the rest in homeless accommodation. Continue reading...

Scholarships and bursaries on offer as universities gear up for ‘clearing campaign like no other’Universities in Scotland are racing to attract students from the rest of the UK in what promises to be “a clearing campaign like no other”, offering a range of financial incentives to lure them to study over the border.Tens of thousands of pounds in bursaries and scholarships are being offered to students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland, to entice them to take up places to study in Scotland this September. Continue reading...

As temperatures across the UK rose, so did the heat among candidates to become the next party leaderAt first the candidates kept coming. A few hours after Boris Johnson resigned, Tom Tugendhat became the earliest contender to declare, promising, for the first of many times, “a clean start”. But the ensuing battle, in the soaring summer heat, was anything but.Eleven people declared at first, including bafflingly Rehman Chishti, who had been a junior foreign office minister for less than a week. He pulled out because he had no supporters as nominations closed. The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, and former health secretary Sajid Javid also crashed out at the first hurdle, as neither could get 20 MPs to nominate them. Continue reading...

Solution to overcrowded asylum centres angers NGOs, though three ships have already been commissionedPlans to house refugees arriving in the Netherlands on cruise ships have been described as “absurd” and illegal, as the Dutch government laid out its solution to overcrowded asylum centres.Three large ships have already been commissioned and one is due to be anchored in Velsen, near IJmuiden in North Holland, although ministers are struggling to find further willing ports. Continue reading...

Analysis: concerns of leadership vacuum unaided by senior ministers cancelling parliamentary committee appearances

Slow-driving convoy caused long delays to those heading to Devon and Cornwall on the first day of the school holidaysProtesters campaigning against high fuel prices have disrupted holiday getaways to the south-west of England by driving in convoy slowly up and down a motorway before blockading a petrol station.The convoy drove at 30mph on three lanes of the M5 north and south in Somerset and the Bristol area on Friday morning as tens of thousands of people headed to Devon and Cornwall to begin summer breaks. Continue reading...

The festival defends decision not to cancel Teodor Currentzis’s appearance despite links to ‘Putin’s private bank’The official opening of one of the world’s leading classical music festivals is being overshadowed by the appearance of a conductor whose orchestra and choir are funded by a bank controlled by the Russian government.Cultural commentators have described Austria’s Salzburg festival, which is also receiving sponsorship money from a foundation with close ties to the Kremlin, of being in the grip of Vladimir Putin’s influence. Along with other classical music events in the region, they argue it has turned itself into a paradise for dubious and often intransparent cultural-corporate partnerships, referred to as “toxic sponsorship”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: open letter sent to Liz Truss after removal of commitment to repeal laws threatening women and girls’ bodily autonomy from international pactThe UK government is coming under growing pressure from European countries and human rights groups to explain why commitments to abortion and sexual health rights have been removed from an official statement on gender equality.Norway and Denmark have approached the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) “to protest against the substantive changes” that were made to a paper that resulted from a UK-hosted conference on freedom of religion and belief, opened by Liz Truss earlier this month, the Guardian has learned. Continue reading...

Douglas ‘Mootijah’ Shillingsworth’s ear problems would have been picked up by proper procedures, coroner Joan Baptie finds

More senators and MPs due to meet Anthony Albanese next week after crossbenchers warned cuts could slow Labor’s legislative agenda

Deaths prompt renewed calls for attention on First Nations domestic violence victims and needs-based funding

Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the UN have agreed a deal to allow ships out of Odesa, says Erdoğan, amid global food crisis

Rebecca Burden was visiting her brain-injured dad for the first time in six months when she says he asked her to kill him

Former soldier’s barrister says newspapers accusing him of murders while part of SAS ‘failed to establish any motive’ and the case is ‘an embarrassment’

Warning comes after 18 people allegedly killed in gruesome attack in Highlands regionDozens of people have been killed in Papua New Guinea during a tense few weeks of voting during the country’s elections, along with reports of sexual abuse, including of children, and 3,000 people displaced due to conflict, the UN has warned.The warning comes after 18 people were allegedly killed in a gruesome attack on Wednesday by warring tribes in Porgera, Enga Province, in the north of the Highlands region. Continue reading...

Reforms allow case reviews to be opened to prisoners’ victims and the press for greater scrutiny of processCharles Bronson, one of the UK’s longest serving and most notorious prisoners, has become the first inmate to formally ask for his next Parole Board hearing to be heard in public after new rules came into force on Thursday in an attempt to remove the secrecy behind the process.The Parole Board said a request for the 70-year-old’s case to be heard in public has been received and will be considered. It is understood the application was made on his behalf. Continue reading...

Data shows average age of mothers has increased, though stillborn and neonatal death rates remain unchanged

Experts say data could help convince public to get booster shots as state’s Covid hospitalisations reach record levels

Relatives of Ann Hamilton voice frustration as coroner reaches conclusions over deaths of five victims in 1974Relatives of one of the five victims of the IRA’s 1974 Guildford pub bombings have criticised the scope of the inquest into the deaths and said they have “unanswered questions” after a coroner delivered a verdict of unlawful killing.At the conclusion of the inquest, coroner Richard Travers said the victims were killed by a “violent, intense and devastating” explosion caused by a remotely-detonated bomb planted by “a young man and woman often referred to as a ‘courting couple’”. Continue reading...

Graham Mansfield from Greater Manchester guilty of manslaughter over death of Dyanne Mansfield, 71A man who slit his wife’s throat “in an act of love” and tried to kill himself has been found not guilty of murder after a judge accepted the couple had made a suicide pact.Graham Mansfield, 73, from Hale in Greater Manchester, was given a suspended sentence of two years after being found guilty of manslaughter at Manchester crown court. Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will appear in several TV debates and go head to head at 12 hustings across the UKRishi Sunak and Liz Truss will face off in front of the public as they compete to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister. They will appear in several TV debates and go head to head at 12 hustings across the country. A new leader will be announced on 5 September after the approximately 200,000 members of the Conservative party have cast their votes.The dates and locations of Conservative leadership hustings and debates are:

High-profile signatories issue a letter asking ViiV to make Cabotegravir affordable to low- and middle-income countriesNobel laureates, business leaders, former premiers and celebrities have urged a UK pharmaceutical company to lower the price of its groundbreaking HIV prevention drug and ensure it is not kept “out of reach” of the world’s poor.In a letter signed by dozens of high-profile figures, including Sir Richard Branson, the singer Olly Alexander, the economist Joseph Stiglitz and Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand, the pharmaceutical company ViiV Healthcare is praised for having developed the first of a new kind of HIV prevention drug. Continue reading...

Police say several types of offence at 20-year high, as Home Office data shows 5.6% of reports led to charge or summons last yearRecorded crime in England and Wales hit a 20-year high as the proportion of offences leading to court action fell to a new low, the latest official figures show.Just 5.6% of offences reported to police led to a suspect being charged or summonsed in 2021-22, down from 7.1% the previous year and from 16% in 2014-2015, Home Office figures reveal. Continue reading...

The Light We Carry, to be published in November, compiles the former first lady’s best strategies for surviving in the face of a ‘rising tide of bigotry and intolerance’A new book by former first lady Michelle Obama will offer readers “fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge and power”, according to her publisher.The Light We Carry, which will be published in November, is Obama’s second book, after her bestselling memoir Becoming, which was released in November 2018. Continue reading...

Police referred 14% more cases to CPS in 2021-22 than in previous year, and more suspects were chargedPolice and prosecutors are driving up the number of rape cases reaching courts in England and Wales in a reversal to previous trends, after a landmark government review promised sweeping reform of how the crime is treated.Referrals, charges and prosecutions of rape increased in the year ending March 2022, up from a series of record lows in 2019, 2020 and 2021, according to figures from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Continue reading...

David Strang condemns underfunding of services and says ‘you can’t punish people out of addiction’The head of Scotland’s drugs deaths taskforce has rejected an approach that seeks to punish “people out of addiction” as he called for the justice system to adopt a public health approach to spiralling fatalities.Launching a hard-hitting report condemning “woefully inadequate” underfunding of services David Strang said: “Addiction itself is not a crime and you can’t punish people out of addiction” Continue reading...

Former chancellor has said he would delay cuts until inflation under control, while rival has pledged immediate cutsRishi Sunak would not cut personal taxes until at least next autumn to avoid fuelling inflation, the Guardian understands.The position is expected to be a clear dividing line between Sunak and his rival, Liz Truss, who has pledged an emergency budget to cut taxes immediately. Continue reading...

In closing submissions newspapers’ counsel claims alleged actions are forceful indicators of Roberts-Smith’s ‘consciousness of guilt’

Tory leadership candidate details her proposals to cut taxes that she voted for as part of Johnson’s cabinet

After narrow victory, Satoko Kishimoto talks of ‘potential to bring about radical change’The first female mayor of a district in Tokyo has vowed to challenge Japan’s male-dominated politics, weeks after she became one of only two women leading municipalities in the Japanese capital.Satoko Kishimoto was elected mayor of Suginami ward last month to become the district’s first female leader in its 90-year history. The progressive candidate beat the conservative incumbent – by just 187 votes – despite having only just returned to Japan after a decade living in Belgium. Continue reading...

Decision to stop trial of trans-inclusive language at three hospitals condemned by LGBTQ+ advocates and praised by Katherine Deves

Body cam footage played in court shows constable saying ‘fuck this little cunt’ during initial search for Gordon Copeland, who drowned in NSW river

‘Bizarre’ pink lights seen in the sky above Victorian town were not an alien invasion after all

Analysis: missteps mean he trails Liz Truss in polls, and he will need to sell himself as a safer electoral betRishi Sunak may have won the leadership ballot among Tory MPs but he will now face a different audience, who have so far seemed largely immune to his charms – 160,000-odd grassroots Conservative members.Sunak has consistently struggled in polling among party activists. The latest ConservativeHome survey last weekend showed him losing a head-to-head battle with Truss by 42% to her 49%. YouGov polling of Conservative members showed him trailing the foreign secretary by an even wider margin, 54% to 35%. Continue reading...