World news | The Guardian

Editor of state-owned RT network Margarita Simonyan appears to contradict Kremlin position in post about Darya Dugina killingThe influential head of Russia’s RT news network has hinted at Russia’s role in the poisoning of the former spy Sergei Skripal, in a remarkable post that contradicts the Kremlin’s official position on the incident.In a post on her Telegram channel on Monday, Margarita Simonyan appeared to acknowledge Russia’s part in the Skripal poisoning when she wrote that Russian “professionals who want to admire spires” should travel to Estonia to go after the alleged killer of Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue who was killed in a car bomb on Saturday night. Continue reading...

Light of India balti house in Ellesmere Port enjoying moment in the spotlight as Hollywood actor sings its praises on InstagramWedged modestly between a glazing shop and a credit union in the Cheshire town of Ellesmere Port, the Light of India balti house does not seem to be the sort of place a Hollywood A-lister would gravitate towards.But the restaurant and takeaway is enjoying a moment in the spotlight after the actor Ryan Reynolds, the star of the Deadpool films, extolled its virtues to his 44 million followers on Instagram, declaring it to serve the “best Indian food in Europe”. Continue reading...

Presenter had earlier announced exit from BBC after nearly 20 years and will take on three-hour slot from SeptemberVanessa Feltz has announced she is joining TalkTV after leaving the BBC after nearly 20 years on its radio stations.Feltz, 60 will replace Jeremy Kyle as presenter of the fledgling network’s three-hour drivetime show from 5 September. Continue reading...

Figure also includes Home Office’s £500,000 ‘strategic communications’ deal, with hearings due to start next yearBills for the Covid-19 public inquiry have already hit £85m despite hearings not starting until next year, after the government hired top legal and public relations firms.Departments making key decisions during the pandemic have hired leading law firms on multimillion-pound contracts alongside specialist firms tasked with sifting through millions of sensitive documents and emails for disclosure. Continue reading...

Relatives of Oladeji Omishore say Met’s actions contributed to 41-year-old’s death in London in JuneThe Metropolitan police were wrong to Taser a man on Chelsea Bridge and their “excessive and unnecessary force” contributed to his death, his family have said.The family of Oladeji Omishore, 41, used a Guardian interview to tell of the “nightmare” and grief they were suffering and vowed to spend the years necessary to battle for justice. Continue reading...

Airline’s winter short-haul schedule is cut by 8% as airport continues to struggle with staffing problemsBritish Airways has announced another round of cancellations, axing 10,000 flights to and from Heathrow until the end of March next year as it adapts to the persistent staff shortages that have hit aviation.The carrier’s decision to shrink its short-haul timetable by 8% comes after the London airport extended the summer’s 100,000 daily cap on passenger numbers by another six weeks until the end of October and asked airlines to sell fewer flights. Continue reading...

Tory leadership candidate says he is focused on race for No 10; energy bosses call for end to battle so new PM can tackle bills crisisBoris Johnson is in the final fortnight of his premiership and, according to Downing Street, later today he will be meeting the chief executive, Ilan Gur, and the chair, Matt Clifford, of the new UK Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria). This is the body set up to fund high-risk scientific research. It is an odd choice for a legacy visit because Aria was only established because of pressure from Dominic Cummings, who was Johnson’s chief adviser in No 10 until he left to become one of the most vocal, and effective, campaigners for Johnson’s removal from office.Mel Stride, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Treasury committee and a Rishi Sunak supporter in the leadership contest, told LBC this morning that Liz Truss would be “flying blind” if she held an emergency budget in September without updated forecasts from the OBR. (See 9.27am.) He said:Liz is coming forward with an emergency budget shortly after September 5th. And there’ll be a number of very significant tax measures within that, plus some spending measures as well as yet undetermined. And at the moment the Liz camp are saying that there will not be any OBR forecasts produced at that time. And that’s like flying blind. It means that you do all these dramatic things on tax etc but you don’t actually know what the independent forecaster believes the impact will be on the public finances. And I think that’s quite a serious situation were that to come about. Continue reading...

Auditing firm worker says he faced ‘heavy pressure’ to attend after-work drinking event in 2019The auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is being sued by a UK employee who lost half of his skull after taking part in a “pub golf” work event that involved excessive drinking.The employee, 28-year-old Michael Brockie, filed a personal injury claim against PwC for alleged negligence, having suffered a brain injury and been put into an induced coma in early 2019. Continue reading...

Raila Odinga submits file to supreme court in move that could heighten the country’s political disputeKenya’s longtime opposition leader, Raila Odinga, has filed a case with the country’s supreme court to challenge the results of the 9 August presidential election in which his opponent, William Ruto, was declared the winner with 50.49% of the vote.Ruto, who has served as deputy president since 2013, was named president-elect amid protests from four of the seven electoral commissioners, who renounced the results, calling them “opaque”. They claimed that the chair of the electoral commission, Wafula Chebukati, had hijacked the process leading up to the announcement and declared the results unilaterally. Continue reading...

FSB claims Ukraine’s special services carried out car bomb attack on daughter of ultra-nationalistRussia has accused Ukraine’s intelligence services of carrying out the murder of Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue, raising fears of a violent retaliation.Dugina was killed on Saturday evening when a bomb blew up the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving, Russian investigators said. Continue reading...

Prosecutor says former footballer must ‘pay price’ for alleged assault of ex-girlfriend and coercive behaviourRyan Giggs hid an aggressive and volatile side to his personality for years but “the truth has caught up with him” and he must “pay the price”, a jury has been told.The former Manchester United and Wales footballer kept part of his profile “hidden beneath the surface” until the night of his arrest, jurors were told. Continue reading...

Those working on cases in England and Wales say they have been left worse off by changes to the systemCriminal barristers in England and Wales have voted overwhelmingly to strike indefinitely from 5 September, the same date a new Conservative leader and prime minister will be announced. Continue reading...

Meloni accused of exploiting woman for electoral purposes after posting footage of attack by asylum seeker in Italian cityGiorgia Meloni, the far-right politician leading the race to become Italy’s next prime minister, has been accused of shameful electioneering by her rivals after posting a video of a Ukrainian woman being raped by an asylum seeker from Guinea in an Italian city.The 55-year-old woman was assaulted on a pavement in the city of Piacenza early on Sunday, local officials said. The incident was videoed by someone in a flat overlooking the street and the assailant was arrested. Continue reading...

An addendum illustrating Gru’s family values and the arrest of antagonist Wild Knuckles has been mockedCensors have altered the ending of the recent animated film, Minions: The Rise of Gru, for its domestic release in China, as spotted by viewers across the country.This is yet another example of China editing a popular Hollywood film. According to posts and screenshots from the movie shared on Weibo, a platform similar to Twitter, censors tacked on an addendum which shows that Wild Knuckles, a main character in the heist film, was caught by police and served 20 years in jail. Continue reading...

Underdog in Tory leadership race says cabinet ministers ‘really need to agree with the big things’

Employees at Bank Leumi near Tel Aviv fled as bovid hurtled through buildingEmployees of an Israeli bank were sent fleeing down corridors on Monday as a bull charged through the building.The incident at a Bank Leumi branch in an industrial zone in Lod, south-east of Tel Aviv, started in the car park. Continue reading...

Car carrying three people in 20s crashed into stationary Tesla and ended up on track by Park Royal tube stopA woman died and three people were injured after a Range Rover crashed and ended up on a railway track in west London.The Piccadilly line was partly suspended on Monday morning after the incident on the A40 westbound near Park Royal tube station. Continue reading...

Gusts expected to move north, while extreme heat in parts of Europe forecast to ease this weekStrong winds are expected to continue to lash Australia this week and, while the peak speeds are not anticipated to be exceptional, the vastness of the area affected will be unusual.As low pressure moves to the south-east, high pressure is likely to develop across Western Australia before heading eastwards. Continue reading...

Businessman accused of fraud by false representation after allegedly failing to declare existence of a trust in SingaporeThe former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has pleaded not guilty to a charge of fraud brought after an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs.Ecclestone is accused of fraud by false representation after allegedly failing to declare the existence of a trust in Singapore worth $650m (£549m). Continue reading...

Experts say news of record haul of more than 11kg of the opioid drug, found in February, should have been announced sooner

Khan is reportedly accused of making threats to the country’s judiciary and police forcePakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been charged under anti-terrorism legislation after he gave a fiery speech to supporters at the weekend in which he vowed to sue police officers and a female judge and alleged a close aide had been tortured after his arrest.Khan will have to “face the law for threatening and hurling abuses”, tweeted the interior minister, Rana Sanaullah. Continue reading...

Analysis: Widely shared footage of drone attacks shows attempt to bring conflict closer to Russian people

Industrial action will begin on 5 September with barristers asking for a 25% pay rise for legal aid workCriminal barristers in England and Wales have voted in favour of an all-out strike next month in a clash with the government over jobs and pay.Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), who have been stopping work on alternate weeks since June, voted for an uninterrupted strike that would start on 5 September, a spokesperson confirmed. Continue reading...

Mark Speakman says he’s spent ‘hundreds of hours’ trying to get cabinet support for reforms from Howard inquiry

Bourke set to present The Last Taboo on history of ‘sex between humans and animals’ at Sydney festival but NSW minister wants it scrapped

Growers’ recovery from floods boosts vegetable availability at supermarkets with prices to ease further into spring and summer

Commission examining responses to domestic violence says Katarina Carroll’s appearance led to ‘further communications’ from officers

Court documents allege supermarket in Victoria did not have crowd control and encouraged a ‘sense of urgency’ among customers

Expert says exam results will likely mirror A-levels and remain above what they were in 2019More pupils will fail their GCSEs this year and top grades are expected to fall as results return to pre-pandemic levels, an education expert has predicted.There could be 230,000 fewer top grades in the UK compared with 2021, but 230,000 more than 2019, according to Prof Alan Smithers, director of the centre for education and employment research at the University of Buckingham. Continue reading...

Judge says Star must also pay $35,000 interest, ruling casino’s failure to initially pay out win was ‘misconceived and breached the contract’ of wager

Somali social media has been flooded with tributes to the man better known as ‘Hadraawi’Messages of condolences continue to pour in from around the world following the death of Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame, regarded as one of Somalia’s greatest poets.Warsame, better known as “Hadraawi”, died in Hargeisa, in Somaliland, on Thursday at the age of 79.The snake sneaks in the castle:although it’s carpeted with thorns Continue reading...

The chances of breakdowns are mitigated with food, but increased with the addition of siblingsLong traffic jams, bickering siblings, extreme boredom – most parents will know the signs to look out for when trying to prevent a full-blown backseat temper tantrum on a family holiday.Now a statistician has calculated the exact formula for predicting the chances, and timing, of children throwing a tantrum in the back of a car during a long journey. Continue reading...

Suggestion of activities to help improve mental and physical health part of wider movement of ‘social prescribing’GPs around England are to prescribe patients activities such as walking or cycling in a bid to ease the burden on the NHS by improving mental and physical health.The £12.7m trial, which was announced by the Department for Transport and will begin this year, is part of a wider movement of “social prescribing”, an approach already used in the NHS, in which patients are referred for non-medical activities. Continue reading...

Exclusive: internal concerns raised over effect of proposals as broadcaster seeks to make £500m in savingsThe BBC’s plan to merge its two rolling news channels could suffer a setback this week when staff publish a damning report that claims the move will have a negative effect on news coverage across BBC radio, TV and online.The corporation is also braced for the regulator, Ofcom, to make a key announcement about the proposal, while some charities have already aired their concerns. Continue reading...

The show of force is expected to prompt an angry response from Pyongyang and follows failure of Trump-era policy of engagementThe US and South Korea have begun their biggest joint military drills in years – a show of force that is expected to raise tensions with an increasingly hostile North Korea.The exercises, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, are being seen as a sign of the allies’ determination to restore large-scale training after they cancelled some regular drills and scaled down others to facilitate nuclear talks, and because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...

The Brothers of Italy has further impeded access to abortion in the Marche region – a policy it could replicate nationally if it wins powerWhen Giulia, 20, discovered she was pregnant she immediately decided that she wasn’t ready to have a baby. Supported by her boyfriend and family, she sought medical advice in her home town in Italy’s central Marche region on how to obtain an abortion. She faced obstacles at every turn, from telephones not being answered and surgeries being closed, to one doctor who tried to persuade her to change her mind.Abortion in Italy was legalised via a referendum in 1978, overturning an outright ban enforced by the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini who deemed it a crime against the Italian race, but the high number of gynaecologists who refuse to terminate pregnancies for moral reasons – 64.6%, according to 2020 data – has meant women still encounter huge difficulties in accessing safe procedures. Continue reading...

Prime minister says there is a ‘fundamental weakness in checks and balances’ and he will consider if a formal inquiry is needed

The country would run out within two months of a major disruption. Here are five ways to reduce vulnerability

UAE scaled back ties with the Islamic republic after Iranian protests over Saudi Arabia’s execution of cleric Nimr al-NimrThe United Arab Emirates said on Sunday that its ambassador to Tehran would resume duties within days, six years after ties were downgraded in support of Saudi Arabia.Ambassador Saif Mohammed al-Zaabi “will resume his duties at the UAE embassy in the Islamic republic of Iran in the coming days to contribute to further advancing bilateral relations”, the Emirati foreign ministry said in a statement. Continue reading...

Vitali, who gave up acting to become the demanding director’s right-hand man, died in Los Angeles on Friday

Thirty-one-year-old who has taken part in three Commonwealth Games is in a coma and on life supportThe Team GB decathlete Ben Gregory is on life support after being involved in a serious cycling accident.Gregory, 31, who has represented Wales at three Commonwealth Games – Delhi 2010, Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast 2018 – is in a coma after suffering a fractured skull and neck and brain haemorrhages. Continue reading...

Study shows median CEO package has surpassed pre-pandemic levels with rate 109 times that of average UK workerChief executives of the UK’s 100 biggest companies have seen their pay jump by 39% to an average of £3.4m, according to research by the High Pay Centre thinktank and the Trades Union Congress (TUC).The median average pay of CEOs of companies in the FTSE 100 index rose to £3.4m in 2021, compared with £2.5m in 2020 during the height of the coronavirus pandemic when many bosses took a voluntary pay cut as they placed millions of employees on furlough. CEO pay has also surpassed the £3.25m median recorded in 2019, before the pandemic. Continue reading...

BBC show will also return to Blackpool Tower ballroom after two-year break in new series launching next monthStrictly Come Dancing will return to Blackpool after a two-year absence and this year’s series will feature a special themed week to celebrate 100 years of the BBC, the broadcaster has announced.The 20th series of the BBC show will see 15 celebrity contestants, including the TV presenter Helen Skelton, EastEnders actor James Bye, singer Fleur East and former England footballer Tony Adams, taking to the dancefloor. Continue reading...

The shadow climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, says energy strategy could save Britons £11bn in three yearsPensioners will go cold and energy bills will stay high unless the next Tory prime minister makes insulating homes a “national mission” that could save people £11bn in three years, Ed Miliband has said.The shadow climate change secretary said Britain is facing a “cost of living emergency” partly caused by the Conservatives’ failure to insulate homes. Continue reading...

Kyiv denies any involvement in death of daughter of ultranationalist Russian ideologue Alexander DuginUkraine is bracing itself for an intensification of Russian missile attacks to coincide with its independence day on Wednesday in the aftermath of the car-bomb killing of the daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue.The country’s military warned that Russia had put five cruise missile-bearing warships and submarines out in the Black Sea and that Moscow was positioning air defence systems in Belarus. Large gatherings have been banned in Kyiv for four days from Monday. Continue reading...

Six weeks on from her disappearance, police say they are carefully studying 40,000 hours of CCTV footage

Controversial plan to fly people from occupied West Bank to Turkey has been pausedA controversial plan to allow Palestinians to fly to Turkey from southern Israel’s Ramon airport has been shelved on the eve of the first scheduled departure.Israel’s airport authority announced earlier this month that Ramon in the Negev desert, near the Red Sea city of Eilat, would begin allowing Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to travel on Turkish-operated flights to Antalya and Istanbul from 22 August. Continue reading...

Deloitte employment forecast adds to calls to improve pathways to permanency for skilled migrants and expand humanitarian visa program