CWU says action will take place in August and September unless Royal Mail ‘gets real’ with ‘dignified’ riseMore than 115,000 UK postal workers are to stage a series of strikes in the coming weeks in a dispute over pay.The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said it would be the biggest strike of the summer so far to demand a “dignified, proper pay rise”. Continue reading...

Inquiry recommends more civilians be hired to reduce corruption watchdog’s reliance on police

Desertion of RAF Linton-on-Ouse scheme is latest immigration policy climbdown after Truss and Sunak opposed plans

End of restrictions has put paid to some pandemic lifestyle changes but other shifts remain in place, poll showsBritain’s love for green fingers and blackened thumbs during the first Covid lockdown has since evaporated as people again find a “new normal” after the ending of restrictions, a survey suggests.The amount of time people spent gardening and doing DIY soared in March and April 2020, with people spending 40 minutes a day improving their homes and gardens compared with just 15 minutes in 2014-15. But it plummeted back to 20 minutes a day in March 2022, Office for National Statistics data shows. Continue reading...

Takings in Orbetello, Tuscany, down 60% as thousands of midges torment locals and touristsAuthorities in a Tuscan town have urged residents to close their windows and refrain from hanging out washing as they tackle a plague of midges that has been tormenting locals and tourists for weeks.Restaurants and bar owners in Orbetello, well known for its lagoon and long stretches of sandy beach overlooked by Monte Argentario, say business has been badly hit as customers avoid venturing out for dinner. Continue reading...

Mario Fiorentini commanded a group of partisans who fought against Benito Mussolini and Italy’s Nazi occupiersMario Fiorentini, Italy’s most decorated resistance fighter against fascist and Nazi forces during the second world war, has died in a Rome hospital. He was 103.The Rome chapter of the National Association of Italian Partisans announced his death on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Dock workers at vital Suffolk container port offered 7% pay rise and £500 lump sumTalks between the Unite union and the company that runs Felixstowe port, which were aimed at stopping an eight-day strike by dock workers at Britain’s busiest container port, have ended without a deal.Negotiations came to an end despite the company’s new offer of a £500 bonus for each of the 1,900 dock workers, who have already voted in favour of strike action between 21 and 29 August amid a pay dispute with the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company. Continue reading...

Foreign secretary previously said she did not want to give ‘handouts’ to people struggling with cost of livingLiz Truss has doubled down on her refusal to offer significant help to people with soaring energy bills this winter, despite a forecast that these could exceed £4,200 annually from January, and rise further during 2023.Truss, the runaway favourite to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister next month, has already said she does not want to give “handouts” to people struggling with bills, preferring to prioritise tax cuts. Continue reading...

Investment group goes into red amid ‘market turbulence’ and withdrawal of £24bn linked to cancelled Lloyds dealThe investment group Abrdn plunged into the red in the first half of the year, after being hit by market turmoil and the withdrawal of more than £24bn of assets linked to a cancelled deal with Lloyds Banking Group.Stephen Bird, the chief executive who scrapped the Standard Life Aberdeen brand for a new name last year, said the pre-tax loss of £320m in the six months to June “largely reflected the challenging global economic environment and market turbulence”. The group had reported profits of £113m a year earlier. Continue reading...

Actor says he was diagnosed with vasculitis two years ago but has recovered and the ordeal made him strongAshton Kutcher has said he is “lucky to be alive” after a he was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder that he says robbed him of sight, hearing and equilibrium.The actor revealed his diagnosis with vasculitis – an autoimmune disease that inflames the blood vessels – during an episode of Running Wild With Bear Grylls: The Challenge. Continue reading...

Tehran denies Khayyam satellite will be under Russian control, despite reported admission by Moscow

Bernard Jenkin insists investigation will continue despite complaints from prime minister’s allies

Analysis: Conservative contest has featured number of changes and clarifications by Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak

Largest increase is among women aged between 35 and 39, ONS data revealsThe total fertility rate in England and Wales has increased for the first time in a decade, with the largest rise among women aged between 35 and 39, data shows.Women with children have an average of 1.61 each, according to ONS data from 2021, up from 1.58 the previous year. Continue reading...

Extreme heat warning issued for Thursday to Sunday for parts of England and WalesThe UK Met Office has issued an amber warning for extreme heat covering four days from Thursday to Sunday for parts of England and Wales as another heatwave looms.The warning comes as the forecaster predicted 35C in places – below last month’s record temperatures, which peaked above 40C in some spots. Continue reading...

Record high temperatures in the Alps this summer have led to the discovery of two bodies and an aircraft that crashed in 1968Soaring temperatures are prompting Switzerland’s melting glaciers to reveal their secrets, with hikers this summer chancing upon two sets of unidentified human remains and a plane wreckage lost for more than half a century.Two French alpinists found human bones last Wednesday while scaling the Chessjen glacier in the southern canton of Valais, a police spokesperson confirmed on Monday. The skeleton was airlifted from the glacier by helicopter on the same day. Continue reading...

Six people remain missing amid fears of further damage with torrential rain forecast in some parts of the country on WednesdayAt least eight people have died in South Korea after record overnight rainfall hammered the capital Seoul, turning streets into rivers, submerging vehicles and inundating metro stations.Rainfall of more than 100mm an hour was recorded in Seoul, surrounding areas of Gyeonggi province and the port city of Incheon on Monday night, according to the Yonhap news agency. Per-hour precipitation in the Dongjak district surpassed 141.5mm at one point, the heaviest hourly downpour in Seoul for 80 years. Continue reading...

Tough economic realities have pushed campaigns beyond ethnic and personality-driven politicsMillions of Kenyans have been voting in an election that pits the longtime opposition politician Raila Odinga against the vice-president, William Ruto.In Kayole, a poor neighbourhood in the capital, Nairobi, residents woke up to the sound of vuvuzelas and whistles from 4am – a rallying call to get out and vote. Continue reading...

Drop marks end of teacher-led grading following cancellation of exams in 2020 and 2021Pass rates for Scottish pupils have fallen markedly after schools returned to using exams to grade performance for the first time since 2019.This year’s results showed the overall pass rate for Highers, heavily used for students aiming for university, fell from 89.3% in 2020 to 78.9%. The pass rate for National 5s, awarded largely to 16-year-olds, fell from a peak of 89% in 2020 to 80.8%. Continue reading...

Man took jamón from warehouse where he worked, defrauding employers out of €520,000 over six yearsA man in Huelva in southern Spain has been jailed for defrauding his employers out of €520,000 (£439,000) after he stole and resold 7,000 hams.The man, who has not been named, stole the jamón from the curing warehouse where he worked over a period of six years from 2007 to 2013. Although he faced a six-year sentence, it was reduced to 11 months and 29 days because the case took so long to come to trial. Continue reading...

Technical difficulties have led to backlog of unfulfilled orders and stock shortages in store for the bookshop chainHigh street bookshop chain Waterstones has said it is working hard to shift a backlog of unfulfilled orders after a problem with warehouse technical systems led to stock shortages.The retailer, which has more than 300 stores across the UK, upgraded to a new system called Blue Yonder several weeks ago, but it has been struggling to get stock out to shops and fulfil customer orders. Continue reading...

City raises upper limit of penalties for causing disturbance after botellones grow in popularity since CovidBarcelona is clamping down on outdoor drinking parties known as botellones by imposing fines of up to €600 (£506).Until now, fines have ranged from €60-€100, which, if paid within 30 days, are reduced by 75%. Continue reading...

Government urged to announce more support for struggling households as Ofgem price cap expected to rise againPressure is mounting on the government to announce a fresh support package for struggling households as energy bills are now forecast to top £4,200 from January.The consultancy Cornwall Insight said on Tuesday that it expected the energy price cap to reach £4,266 a year for the first three months of next year. Continue reading...

Ruling party steps up rhetoric by suggesting it could unseat European Commision’s Ursula von der LeyenPoland’s national-conservative government has significantly toughened its rhetoric in its rule-of-law standoff with Brussels, threatening to turn “all our cannon” on the European Commission and if necessary build a coalition to unseat its president.If the EU executive “tries to push us against the wall we will have no choice but to pull out all the weapons in our arsenal” and respond “an eye for an eye”, said Krzysztof Sobolewski, the general secretary of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. Continue reading...

Barilaro was not present at 2 June meeting and Petinos says she ‘did not take any action in relation to the matters’ raised by company

Four patients on why they went overseas for dental care due to costs and being unable to obtain treatment locallyPeople in the UK are travelling abroad for dental care as treatment closer to home becomes increasingly inaccessible.Nine in 10 practices in England are not offering NHS appointments to new adult patients amid chronic underfunding and the pandemic. Cuts to funding over the last decade mean that NHS dentistry would require an additional £880m to return to 2010 levels, according to the British Dental Association. Continue reading...

Former US envoy given award at conference now engulfed in row over changes to reproductive rights pledges, while participant list revealed to have included members of group accused of hate speechThe British government presented a vehemently anti-abortion former US envoy with an award for his services to freedom of religion just days before watering down a statement on gender equality to remove commitments to reproductive rights.Sam Brownback, a former governor of Kansas who targeted abortion rights while in office and then became Donald Trump’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, was given the award during the international ministerial conference for freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) held in London last month. Continue reading...

Western Australia’s Cottesloe and Peppermint Grove the top-earning area while five of the lowest are in regional NSW

Prime minister Sogavare’s office claims country does not have resources to host Pacific Games and an election at same time, raising outcry from opponentsA bill to delay elections in Solomon Islands has been submitted to its parliament, officials said, prompting concern from opposition politicians.Manasseh Sogavare’s government has said it wants to extend parliament until after it hosts the Pacific Games in November 2023, for which China has donated seven stadiums and venues that are being built by Chinese companies. Continue reading...

‘I fear that Australia will in short time be repatriated with the corpse of Mr [Robert] Pether’, say doctors of imprisoned engineer

Tensions high as Taiwan begins live-fire drills and China continues military exercises it started after US speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei last weekChina used its military drills last week to prepare for an invasion of Taiwan, and its anger over US speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit was just an excuse, Taiwan’s foreign minister has said.The minister, Joseph Wu, addressed the media on Tuesday morning, as China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continued with military exercises it began last week, and Taiwan started its own live-fire drills. Wu accused China of “gross violations of international law”. Continue reading...

Spanish-born woman sacked from care home after being unable to prove immigration statusA Spanish-born woman who has lived in England for 45 years is still fighting to secure the right to work in the UK, a year after being sacked from her job in a care home because she was unable to prove she had a valid immigration status.The 46-year-old woman, who arrived in Britain as an 11-month-old baby and who has never left the country, has been trying to secure EU settled status since her employers dismissed her last June, as they enforced post-Brexit right-to-work regulations. Continue reading...

Former judge provides 32 recommendations to improve the state’s crime and corruption watchdog

Organisers say On Your Side set up in response to dramatic rise in hate crime directed towards ESEA people since start of pandemicA free nationwide 24-hour helpline offering support for east and south-east Asian victims of racism and other forms of hate in the UK has been launched.The On Your Side helpline will be run by specialist advisers to provide tailored and culturally sensitive support. Longer-term support from a trained casework advocate will be offered, with case workers helping people understand their rights and direct them to specialist support services. Continue reading...

Queensland police believe the alleged attacker was in a relationship with the woman and are appealing for public information

IFS research shows six in 100 patients would have survived if they had been treated by a similar doctor in LondonOne in 25 people who die of a heart attack in the north-east of England could have survived if the average cardiologist effectiveness was raised to the London level, research shows.The research, undertaken by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), looked at the record of over 500,000 NHS patients in the UK, over 13 years. It highlights the stark “postcode lottery” of how people living in some parts of the country have access to lower quality healthcare. Continue reading...

Feared Gulf Clan has unleashed terror campaign since arrest of leader in May but keen to talk to leftist president Gustavo PetroOne of Colombia’s most feared armed groups has announced a “unilateral” ceasefire in the hopes of entering peace talks with the government of Colombia’s new leftist leader, Gustavo Petro.The Gulf Clan, a notorious drug-trafficking militia, has unleashed a campaign of terror following the May extradition to the US of its leader – Dairo Antonio Úsuga, or “Otoniel”, assassinating dozens of police and holding large swaths of the country hostage. Continue reading...

Event is on track to be most successful games in history with more than 1.5m tickets soldBirmingham is expecting a surge of tourists over the summer as the city’s reputation receives a boost from the Commonwealth Games, business leaders said as the 11-day sports event comes to a close.The event has been heralded as a roaring success for the Midlands city, with more than 1.5m tickets sold – making it on track to be one of the most successful Commonwealth Games in history. Continue reading...

Analysis: there are deep divisions among the party’s MPs about the leadership frontrunner’s spending promisesLiz Truss as prime minister will have to appeal to three very different constituencies. The first is Conservative members, a target audience that has been enthused by talk of tax cuts for both individuals and businesses, as well as cuts to Whitehall waste and a war against “woke”.When she turns to face the wider electorate, that message will need to change considerably but – in between now and then – there is another constituency that will be crucial: agitated and sceptical Conservative MPs. Continue reading...

Tory frontrunner says tax cuts and spending could cost £30bn, but analysis shows a much higher priceLiz Truss’s emergency tax and spending pledges could cost upwards of £50bn a year, with experts warning they will fail to help the worst-off deal with the rising cost of living.Truss, the strong favourite to be the next prime minister, has promised to cancel the national insurance rise, scrap a planned increase in corporation tax, spend more on defence, and remove green levies on energy bills for households and businesses – all of which would cost billions. She has also suggested boosting freeports, which would entail tax cuts for business, and mooted an increase in the married tax allowance. Continue reading...

Mexico and Venezuela send crews to fight fire that has killed at least one and injured 125, with dozens of firefighters still missingA deadly fire that began at Cuba’s main oil terminal in Matanzas has spread after a third crude tank caught fire and collapsed as firefighters struggled to fight the massive blaze.At least one person has died and 125 are injured, with dozens of firefighters reported missing ever since lighting struck one of the facility’s eight tanks on Friday night. A second tank caught fire on Saturday, triggering several explosions at the facility, which plays a key part in Cuba’s electric system. Continue reading...

Review casts doubt on Boris Johnson’s claim that frontline services would not be harmedDoubts have been cast on claims by Boris Johnson that it will be possible to go ahead with plans to axe 91,000 civil servants “without harming” frontline services.The prime minister wrote in May to civil servants justifying plans for a reduction in headcount of almost 20%, saying the government must reduce its costs “just as many families are doing”. Continue reading...

Many areas are still without water and electricity following three days of Israeli airstrikesIn Shujaiya, a neighbourhood of Gaza City already scarred by several rounds of war, men passed around coffee and dates under the shade of a colourful mourning tent while Palestinian Islamic Jihad battle songs blared from a sound system.Men carrying AK-47s, their faces shielded by black balaclavas, lined the entrance to the tent, and the militant group’s black and yellow flag flew overhead. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Lib Dem leader says new PM should let government pay £36bn cost in new ‘energy furlough scheme’Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak should cancel the £1,400 energy price cap increase in October in a new “energy furlough scheme” and government should absorb the £36bn cost of the hike, the leader of the Liberal Democrats has said.Ed Davey said neither candidate appeared to have any policies that grasped the magnitude of what could happen this autumn. “We are facing a catastrophe this winter, a drop in living standards unlike anything we have seen in my lifetime,” he said. Continue reading...

Revival of agreement awaits ‘political decisions’ in Tehran and Washington after negotiators in Vienna agree textThe European Union has submitted a “final text” at talks to salvage the 2015 deal aimed at reining in Iran’s nuclear ambitions.The revival of the agreement now awaits “political decisions” in Tehran and Washington after negotiators in Vienna agreed the text thrashed out between Iranian and European representatives over the past five days was the final text and could not be amended further. Continue reading...

Helen Rhodes was a ‘devoted wife and mother’ and ‘the glue that held her family together’, a friend saidA mother of two died in front of her children and husband after becoming unresponsive on a flight from Hong Kong to the UK.Helen Rhodes, who was flying back to the UK with her family after more than 15 years abroad, was found unresponsive hours into the flight on 5 August, her friend Jayne Jeje wrote in a Go Fund Me which has since raised more than £13,000. Continue reading...

Announcement brings financial aid from US to $8.5bn; Ukraine says staff at plant working under ‘barrel of Russian guns’

Blazes have consumed vast tracts of forest in Newfoundland and Labrador and remain out of controlOfficials in Canada’s easternmost province have issued a state of emergency as crews battle the worst wildfires the region has experienced in more than half a century.Sprawling blazes have consumed thousands of hectares of forest in Newfoundland and Labrador over the last two weeks and remain out of control. Continue reading...