World news | The Guardian

Concern that potential contenders to replace Johnson are not ready, given the speed of backlash after Gray reportRebel Conservative MPs’ plans to oust Boris Johnson next week have descended further into disunity, with some worried that potential contenders to replace the prime minister are not ready to launch their bids.One MP hoping to engineer defeat for Johnson is now encouraging colleagues to withdraw their letters of no confidence to avoid triggering a vote “by accident” as soon as Monday or Tuesday, the Guardian has learned. Continue reading...

About 80% of eastern Ukrainian city in Russian hands as allies promise more missiles

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi says Ryanair worker in Brussels wrongly took issue with her travel documentsA Ugandan-born prize-winning author said she was left feeling “numb” after she was stopped from boarding a Ryanair flight from Brussels back home to Manchester.Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, a British citizen who has lived in the UK for 21 years, was returning from a literary festival when she was barred from checking in. Continue reading...

Michael O’Leary hits back at Grant Shapps’s claim that firms have oversold flights and holidaysRyanair boss Michael O’Leary has suggested the army be drafted into UK airports for the next “three to four months” to help resolve the widespread disruption that has peaked over the half-term break.The airline chief executive said “defence personnel with experience providing security” should be deployed at under-pressure transport hubs to prevent the lengthy queues and delays that have plagued passengers this week. Continue reading...

Latest updates: Labour’s deputy leader says her party would clean up politics and restore standards in public life

Brent crude makes small rise to $116.94 as group sets extra output higher at 650,000 barrels a dayThe Opec oil cartel and its allies have agreed to ramp up production of crude amid a surge in global demand, but did not exclude Russia from contributing to future increases despite its invasion of Ukraine.Ministers representing Opec’s 13 members and 10 non-Opec producers led by Russia, a grouping called Opec+, said on Thursday they would increase output by nearly 650,000 barrels a day in July and August, nearly two-thirds more than previously planned rises of about 400,000 barrels a day. Continue reading...

Letter seen as potential warning to 17 asylum seekers who began protest after being given offshoring dateAsylum seekers who went on hunger strike over plans to send them to Rwanda have been threatened with faster deportation by the Home Office if they do not eat.At least 17 people from Syria, Egypt and Sudan, who are being held at the Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick airport, began the protest when they were told they would be sent to Rwanda on 14 June as part of a controversial new scheme. Continue reading...

Weinstein, 70, is jailed in California, where he was extradited last year to await trial on charges he assaulted five womenA New York appellate court has upheld Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction, rejecting the disgraced film producer’s claims that the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced him by allowing women to testify about allegations that were not part of the criminal case.The ruling on Thursday by a five-judge panel in the state intermediate appeals court affirmed a milestone verdict in America’s reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures, an era that began with a flood of allegations against Weinstein. Continue reading...

Adam Bisultanov reportedly killed on 26 May in clash with mercenaries including Ben Grant, son of MP Helen Grant

Fugitive Vietnamese state company official Trinh Xuan Thanh was abducted from Berlin park in July 2017A Vietnamese man has been extradited to Germany to face charges of taking part in a brazen cold war-style kidnapping of an oil executive ordered by Hanoi, prosecutors have said.The suspect, identified only as Anh TL, was sent to Germany from the Czech Republic after he was detained in Prague last month on the basis of German and European arrest warrants. Continue reading...

Queen’s son will not attend service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, palace saysPrince Andrew has tested positive for Covid and will no longer attend the Queen’s jubilee service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday, Buckingham Palace has said.A palace spokesman said: “After undertaking a routine test the duke has tested positive for Covid and with regret will no longer be attending tomorrow’s service.” Continue reading...

Queen, Kate, Camilla, Meghan and younger Cambridges wear harmonious shades of blueMost of the jubilee audience tuned in not for the trooping the colour, but to watch the royal family observe the proceedings. While the bunting and high-stepping horses trumpeted an official message of unity, the optics of the royal family were closely scrutinised for what they tell us of fraught Windsor family dynamics, of the health of the 96-year-old Queen, and of the messaging “the firm” plans to broadcast during their weekend in the spotlight.Watching the military flypast from a Buckingham Palace balcony, the Queen wore blue and white, two of the three colours of the union flag. At the Royal Windsor horse show last month, she had dressed for comfort in a woollen shawl in place of a coat, but here she was in her customary crisp, no-nonsense, boxy tailoring. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Gender bias means debilitating gynaecological conditions are played down, says RCOG president

Experts doubt state media claims that the worst is over, as WHO warns of global dangers of letting the virus spread unchecked

Actor, who has alopecia, has finally addressed her husband’s decision to slap Rock over a joke about her shaved head at the Academy AwardsJada Pinkett Smith has finally spoken about the shocking moment her husband, Will Smith, slapped the comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars, saying she hopes that “these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out, and reconcile”.On the latest episode of her Facebook Watch show, Red Table Talk, Pinkett Smith turned her husband’s blowup into a teachable moment about alopecia areata, dedicating the episode to the hair loss disorder that affects her and millions of others. Continue reading...

Data shows rates of absenteeism in the first two weeks of May were well above the seasonally-adjusted average

Government’s proposal to ditch opt-out backed by 66.9% to 33.1% in referendum following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Awards also go to doctor who volunteered on Covid frontline and campaigner for women’s safetyFrom the oldest, aged 104, to the youngest, 11-year-old twins, the majority of honours are awarded to ordinary individuals who have undertaken extraordinary acts for their communities.Dance teacher Angela Redgrave, 104, of the Bristol School for Dancing, who taught for 70 years, receives a BEM. Twins Elena and Ruben Evans-Guillen, from Warrington, Cheshire, are the youngest ever recipients and receive BEMs after raising £50,000 for the NHS over the past three years. Continue reading...

Euan Blair is awarded MBE, Arelene Foster becomes dame, and Rio Ferdinand and Damian Lewis recognisedThe Conservative former attorney general Jeremy Wright, who this week called on Boris Johnson to resign, becomes a knight in the birthday honours list, while Euan Blair, the multimillionaire son of the former prime minister Tony Blair, is awarded an MBE.Also on the list, released before the Queen’s platinum jubilee, is Arlene Foster, the former first minister in Northern Ireland, who becomes a dame. The football commentator Rio Ferdinand and the actor Damian Lewis are among sports and arts figures to be recognised. Continue reading...

The focus of the case was a 2018 editorial Heard wrote calling herself ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse’The jury in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial has ruled in favor of Johnny Depp, finding that a Washington Post editorial she wrote defamed her former husband.The jurors’ unanimous decision on Wednesday capped a seven-week trial in a Virginia courtroom which featured dozens of witnesses and experts weighing in on whether Depp was abusive to Heard – or vice versa – during their 15-month marriage. Continue reading...

After six weeks of testimony, a split verdict is returned on the former couple’s dueling defamation claimsMore than three years after Johnny Depp sued ex-wife Amber Heard for defamation over an op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post about surviving domestic abuse, jurors returned a split verdict on the former couple’s dueling defamation claims.After six weeks of testimony, amounting to 61 hours granted to each side, the Depp-Heard saga was only on its face a defamation case. It gave Depp an opportunity to air his narrative of a 15-month, love-to-hate marriage, and Heard, by return, to describe hers. Continue reading...

Rebecca Tuck says internal investigation into president-elect Shaima Dallali will take priorityThe QC leading an independent investigation into alleged antisemitism within the National Union of Students has announced she will examine the election of the organisation’s incoming president as well as wider concerns.Rebecca Tuck, who was appointed to head the inquiry after consultations between the NUS and the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), said an internal investigation into Shaima Dallali, the president-elect, under the NUS’s code of conduct would take first priority, with her findings to be announced within weeks. Continue reading...

Leadership ‘incapable of examining which aspects of its culture have been the most deficient,’ writes Louise Arbour in reportSome members of the Canadian military face greater harm from their comrades than from the enemy, according to a new report on sexual violence in the Canadian armed forces (CAF).Called the Arbour report after its author, the former supreme court justice Louise Arbour, the 404-page document pinpoints the many failures of the CAF over the years to address misogyny, discrimination, sexual violence and trauma experienced predominantly by female members of the military. Continue reading...

Latest allegation against 27-year-old France international footballer relates to new complainantThe Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has been charged with a further count of rape.The latest allegation, relating to a new complainant, means the 27-year-old stands accused of eight counts of rape, one count of sexual assault and one count of attempted rape, relating to seven young women. Continue reading...

Jonathan Evans rows in behind Lord Geidt with critical statement on Boris Johnson’s changes to codeA powerful standards watchdog has accused Boris Johnson of failing to allay fears that he and his ministers consider themselves above the rules, as his support continued to ebb away in the wake of the Partygate scandal.Jonathan Evans, the chair of the committee on standards in public life, criticised a planned overhaul to the way the ministerial code is policed, saying they undermined the role of Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser, Christopher Geidt. Continue reading...

Those charged allegedly attended outside gathering of more than two when London was under tier 4 restrictionsSix people are being prosecuted by the Metropolitan police for allegedly breaching Covid-19 restrictions during a vigil for Sarah Everard, who was murdered by a Met officer.According to court documents, those being charged include Dania Al-Obeid, 27, from Stratford, east London; Vivien Hohmann, 20, from Clapham, south London; Ben Wheeler, 21, from Kennington, south London; and Kevin Godin-Prior, 68, from Manchester. Their cases were heard at Westminster magistrates court on Wednesday. Continue reading...

People from all over the world have set up tents near Buckingham PalaceWith 24 hours to go until the pageantry of the Queen’s platinum jubilee begins at Buckingham Palace, tents could be seen lining the Mall on Wednesday morning.“We’re here for one thing only, Her majesty the Queen,” said John Loughrey, 67, from London, who was among the first to pitch his tent on Monday, in a bid to get the best possible view of the monarch passing in a golden carriage and later waving from the balcony alongside her family over the jubilee bank holiday weekend. Continue reading...

Rose Martin has claimed someone hacked her account and posted offending imageThe newly elected Conservative mayor of Walsall has been suspended from the party over a racist post from her WhatsApp account.Rose Martin claimed someone hacked her account and posted the offending image, which showed five black children looking at one white child under the caption: “First day at school for a Ukrainian refugee in south London.” Continue reading...

Deliveries of orders not guaranteed while administrators unlikely to honour refund requests from before they were called inThousands of Missguided customers could be left out of pocket as administrators are not expected to pay refunds that were applied for before they were called in on Monday and deliveries of orders are not guaranteed.The online fashion retailer’s website gradually closed down on Wednesday, including access to customer services, after a £20m deal to acquire the brand was agreed with the Sports Direct owner, Frasers Group. Continue reading...

Former PM joins panel discussion of pandemic’s effect on workplace gender equality and urges bosses not to overlook women

Washington says it has assurances as Moscow warns supply risks ‘third country’ being drawn into war

L/Cpl Ryan Mackenzie who killed himself at North Yorkshire army base was never same after tours of dutyA soldier who killed himself at an army base in North Yorkshire had been traumatised and was never the same after tours of duty in Afghanistan, an inquest heard.Angela Mackenzie, the aunt of L/Cpl Ryan Mackenzie, said after the first tour he “went into himself” and “could no longer deal with loud noises”. Continue reading...

From missed tennis matches to cancelled honeymoons, we spoke to four groups of people whose getaways were scuppered by the travel turmoil

Boris Johnson asks voters to judge him on what ‘we’re getting on and delivering'; Tory MP writes to constituents criticising the PM

Jury finds Anthony Bilodeau and his father guilty in the deaths of Maurice Cardinal and his nephew, Jacob Sansom, who were MétisA white man who shot and killed two Indigenous hunters on a country road in the Canadian province of Alberta has been found guilty of murder and manslaughter in a case that laid bare racial tensions in the region. The man’s father was also found guilty of two counts of manslaughter.Anthony Bilodeau, 33, and his father, Roger Bilodeau, 58, were charged in the deaths of Maurice Cardinal, 57, and his nephew, Jacob Sansom, 39, on a March 2020 evening. After deliberating for less than a day, an Edmonton jury found both men guilty late on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Simon Fell, MP for Barrow, publicly questions Boris Johnson’s position in letter to constituents

Newer MPs in particular worried about being targeted by whips if they go public or their name leaks, say rebelsTory MPs including a junior minister are holding back from submitting letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson over fears their names will leak and they will face reprisals from the whips.Rebel Conservatives trying to orchestrate enough names to oust the prime minister say many MPs, particularly newer ones, are concerned about the privacy of the process. Continue reading...

Francois-Marie Dibon made 765 jumps in Pitlochry, Perthshire, easily beating the previous record of 430A French man has set a new world record for the most bungee jumps in a 24-hour period.Francois-Marie Dibon made 765 jumps in Pitlochry, Perthshire, easily beating the previous record set by New Zealander Mike Heard in 2017, who completed 430 jumps. Continue reading...

First group of asylum seekers will be relocated on 14 June, Priti Patel saysCharities that support asylum seekers say they are documenting a number of suicide attempts among those threatened with being sent to Rwanda.The news comes as the home secretary, Priti Patel, has announced that the first group of asylum seekers who entered the UK without authorisation will be deported to Rwanda on 14 June. Continue reading...

Prime minister also plans to remove AFP from home affairs portfolio as he reshapes the public service

Friday marks the 100th day of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. This is how the Russian president’s ‘special military operation’ evolved into a bloody war of attritionWARNING: this piece contains distressing and violent imageryAfter months of buildup and numerous denials that any invasion was planned, Vladimir Putin announced on 24 February that he had launched a “special military operation” to “demilitarise and denazify” Ukraine. Continue reading...

Labor ministry sworn in; 37 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Foreign affairs minister tells regional leaders ‘we understand we need to work together like never before’ as battle for influence with China intensifies

Justice secretary says Johnson only ‘unintentionally’ broke law as ethics adviser reportedly threatens to quitBoris Johnson’s deputy has insisted the prime minister did not breach the ministerial code even though he was fined by police for attending a No 10 party in lockdown, as the government’s ethics chief reportedly threatened to quit over the scandal.Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, said on Wednesday that Johnson had only “unintentionally” and “inadvertently” broken the law by attending a birthday gathering in No 10 during lockdown, which led to him being fined by police. Continue reading...

Five former Brighton Secondary College students allege principal endorsed Nazis and called Jewish people ‘subhuman’

Arts minister Tony Burke declares the era of ‘neglect’ and ‘contempt’ for the arts and entertainment sector to be over

Creative differences emerge between small-town organisers and passionate Hungarian artist who brought their dream to lifeA big stink is brewing over a public toilet billed as Australia’s best, with legal threats exchanged between the committee that commissioned it and the painter who lavishly adorned its walls.The “Cistern Chapel of Maryborough” was unveiled in mid-May to much fanfare, with its extravagant murals and golden “throne” splashed across TV screens countrywide. Continue reading...

Company controlled by Mike Ashley ‘delighted to secure a long-term future’ for online fashion retailerFrasers Group, controlled by the Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley, has bought the online fashion retailer Missguided out of administration for £20m in cash.Frasers, which owns the brands Sports Direct, House of Fraser and Flannels, announced it had acquired certain intellectual property of Missguided Ltd and other related firms Mennace Ltd and Missguided (IP) Ltd. Continue reading...

Conor Burns says Brexit deal intended to support peace accord is undermining cross-community consentThe UK’s special envoy for the Northern Ireland protocol has said he told US officials that it has become a threat to the Good Friday agreement.Conor Burns, the Northern Ireland minister assigned to make the UK’s case in Washington, shrugged off a threat earlier this month by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to block a US-UK free trade deal if the UK took unilateral action to override the protocol. Continue reading...