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Car that had been parked for years under corn bags in a Bundaberg garage attracted 300-400 inquiries before selling to Sunshine Coast man

Jason Alexander was livestreaming his approach to the venue on Instagram and was arrested by California authoritiesBritney Spears’s ex-husband was arrested while crashing her wedding site in southern California, authorities say.Captain Cameron Henderson of Ventura county sheriff’s office said officers responded to a trespassing call after 2pm on Thursday. He said the pop singer’s first husband, Jason Alexander, was detained at the site of the ceremony. Continue reading...

Opposition parties say the findings show the Conservatives are ‘burning taxpayers money by the billion’Protective clothing worth £4bn bought early in the pandemic to stop NHS staff being infected with Covid is to be burned because it is unusable, a report has revealed.The imminent destruction of so many items and waste of public money is disclosed in a report by the Commons public accounts committee (PAC) that is scathing of the DHSC’s strategy when the Covid pandemic struck in 2020. Continue reading...

Asylum Aid makes legal application to stop flights in challenge to Priti Patel’s offshoring policyThe Home Office’s first flight to Rwanda under the home secretary’s offshoring plan is facing a second injunction which aims to stop it from taking off.A refugee charity, Asylum Aid, has applied for an urgent interim injunction preventing any flights from leaving, including the first one, scheduled on Tuesday, until after its application for a judicial review can be heard. Continue reading...

In US ‘trigger states’ where the procedure may soon be illegal, searchers may be sent to centers that do not actually provide careOne in 10 Google searches for abortion services in US “trigger states”, where the procedure is likely to become illegal if the US supreme court overturns Roe v Wade, are being misdirected to clinics known as “pregnancy crisis centers” that do not actually provide care, according to a new study.After a leak revealed the US supreme court is on the verge of overturning the landmark abortion rights law Roe v Wade, attention has turned to “trigger law” states that would ban abortion immediately if the decades-old decision is undone. Continue reading...

BBC investigation alleges assault and grooming incidents at homes, schools and housing run by firmMinisters are facing calls for urgent reform of the children’s residential care system in the wake of shocking reports of vulnerable youngsters being abused and sexually assaulted at homes run by a private firm making huge profits.A BBC investigation revealed a series of alleged safeguarding incidents in which youngsters were put at risk in homes, schools and supported housing run by Calcot Services for Children, including assault, grooming and child-on-child sexual abuse.A 28-year-old Calcot head office staff member was jailed after abusing his position by grooming and having sex with a 17-year-old while redeployed as a support worker at a supported living accommodation.A girl at a Calcot home with significant learning difficulties who was known to be at risk of absconding, repeatedly fled, once with a boy, and twice attempted to take her own life, in one instance being rescued from the side of a nearby river bridge. Continue reading...

London university investigation finds ‘culture of unacceptable behaviour’ going back decadesUniversity College London has apologised to current and former students and staff for a “culture of unacceptable behaviour” at its architecture school going back decades.The apology comes after the university conducted an investigation into complaints of sexism and racism on campus, first reported by the Guardian last year. Continue reading...

Chair of the 1922 Committee leaves door open to rule change as William Hague says PM could be ousted by other meansBoris Johnson could face the prospect of another no-confidence vote within a year after Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee, refused to rule out changing the rules.Some Tory rebels hope that after the prime minister faced calls from 41% of his own MPs to quit, a second bid to depose him could come sooner than expected. Continue reading...

Ukrainian president pleads for more outside help in speech at gala to honour Time’s most influential people

After a decade in detention, an Iranian refugee family dares to dream of the possibility of resettlement

Labor urged to revive national pandemic strategy while medical bodies warn of ‘looming disaster’ from flu, Covid and staff burnouts

TSSA union ballots could lead to complete national shutdown by time of Commonwealth Games in JulyManagers and train drivers could join the strikes across the railway, potentially setting up a complete national shutdown by the time of the Commonwealth Games in July.The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) union, whose members manage control rooms, signalling and power for train operators and Network Rail, has launched its first strike ballot, while the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef) union has called the first regional walkouts by drivers. Continue reading...

New single This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr is a ballad about the difficulties of film stardom, taken from Depp’s forthcoming album with Jeff BeckJohnny Depp has released a new self-penned song performed with Jeff Beck, This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr, taken from the pair’s forthcoming collaborative album, entitled 18.A trudging rock ballad sung by Depp interspersed with solo vocals from Beck, it hymns the 1940s film star (and innovative electrical engineer) Hedy Lamarr, though this lament about fame will inevitably be read as a reaction to the high-profile, frequently ugly defamation case he recently brought against his ex-wife Amber Heard. Continue reading...

Interior ministry believes Iswap was behind attack in Ondo state on Sunday that killed 40 peopleNigerian security officials suspect extremists from Islamic State’s affiliate in west Africa were behind an attack on a Catholic church last weekend that killed dozens.Forty people are now thought to have died after gunmen stormed St Francis Catholic church in Owo, Ondo State, on Sunday, and 61 survivors are still being treated in hospital, according to local authorities. The total is double an earlier estimate. Continue reading...

Can Arslan stabbed Matthew Boorman to death on lawn and seriously injured two othersA “monster” who murdered one neighbour and seriously wounded two others in a “spree of planned violence” after they took legal action to try to curtail his 12-year campaign of extreme harassment has been jailed for at least 37 years.Can Arslan, 52, stabbed Matthew Boorman on Boorman’s front lawn in the village of Walton Cardiff, Gloucestershire, on 5 October last year. Boorman’s wife, Sarah, sustained a knife wound to her thigh as she tried to help, while another neighbour, Peter Marsden, was stabbed eight times but managed to fend off Arslan. Continue reading...

This live blog has now closed, you can read more on Boris Johnson’s comments about a potential ‘wage-price spiral’ hereThe Queen has received a present from the cabinet to mark her Platinum Jubilee, No 10 says. It is a specially-commissioned musical box, with pictures of all the 14 prime ministers who have served here around the side. When it opens it plays Handel’s Hallelujah.In every office there is always someone who organises the presents and this picture, on the No 10 Flickr account, suggests that in cabinet that job falls to Michael Ellis, the paymaster general. Continue reading...

Regulator berates network operators for ‘unacceptable’ time taken to restore power to thousands of homesPower companies must “up their game” after thousands of households in Britain faced “appalling conditions” when they were left without power for more than a week after Storm Arwen hit last year, the industry watchdog has said.Publishing its full report into the response of power distributors to the storm, Ofgem said they were underprepared and provided an “unacceptable service” to customers, with nearly 1m homes losing power and 4,000 of those cut off for longer than a week. Continue reading...

Figures shows 10% rise in FSM across England and school leaders say real child poverty level is even higherNearly one in three children in the north-east of England are receiving free school meals (FSM), according to figures that reveal a 10% rise across England, as school leaders say the real level of child poverty is even higher.The figures released in the Department for Education (DfE) annual school census show that 22.5% of state school pupils are on FSM, up from 20.8% last year, reflecting the increasing number of households receiving universal credit and earning less than £7,400 a year after tax. Continue reading...

Steven Pleasant, who expressed surprise about Question Time audience member’s ‘compassion’, steps downA long-serving council chief executive has resigned after he posted a tweet expressing surprise that a Conservative voter could show “compassion and empathy”.Steven Pleasant, the head of Tameside council in Greater Manchester, made the remark about an audience member on the BBC’s Question Time before last month’s local elections. Continue reading...

Achim Allweyer, 52, and Arend-Adolf Gräss, 60, allegedly tried to form paramilitary unit to join civil warTwo former German soldiers have gone on trial accused of attempting to form a paramilitary group to fight in Yemen’s civil war after being inspired by a psychic.Achim Allweyer, 52, and Arend-Adolf Gräss, 60, took steps to set up what prosecutors say amounted to a “terrorist organisation” after receiving “messages from a fortune teller that they understood as binding instructions for action”, according to the indictment read out at Stuttgart’s higher regional court on Thursday. Continue reading...

Ivan Rogers says plan by ‘dishonest’ government to override Northern Ireland protocol may cause trade warBritish-EU relations will probably get worse over the next two years because “the narcissistic politics of self-preservation” will continue to prevail in the UK, according to a former British envoy to Brussels.Sir Ivan Rogers, who served as Britain’s ambassador to the EU until he quit in 2017 over Brexit, forecast that the Northern Ireland protocol dispute would remain “a crucial impediment to any improvement in the UK-EU relationship” for the rest of the British parliamentary and European Commission terms, which are both due to end in 2024. Continue reading...

Troops in Bakhmut describe perilous fight as city standing in way of Russian advance is pounded by missilesSeven miles from Ukraine’s frontline, resting Ukrainian soldiers were smoking cigarettes on benches in the shade outside a military hospital. The constant thud of artillery could be heard in the distance. The city of Bakhmut felt deserted. There was little sense of life from before the war – no children, cars, and barely any people. Windows were boarded up with only a handful of civilians on the streets. Almost the only activity had been brought here by the war.The soldiers, weary and jaded, described a perilous fight to hold Ukraine’s east. First a relentless bombardment by Russian heavy equipment, quickly followed by advancing tanks and infantry soldiers – whose job it is to “clean up” any Ukrainian troops left standing. Continue reading...

Detectives told teenager there was little chance of the case succeeding, inquest jurors toldThe Dorset teenager Gaia Pope was left devastated when she learned a man she had accused of raping her had allegedly harassed and targeted many other women and girls, an inquest jury has heard.Pope, 19, whose body was found on a clifftop in November 2017, 11 days after she went missing, had reported the rape because she wanted to protect others, jurors were told, but detectives told her there was little chance of the case succeeding and it would be traumatic to go to court, it is claimed.In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...

As its defence minister trumpets a key aim being achieved, Russia is pushing hard to subjugate areas of southern Ukraine it controls

Greggor Grey, who has served 17 years for robbery, says he escaped because of ‘injustice and heartache’An escaped prisoner who has been on the run for over three weeks has appeared on a podcast, saying being in prison was causing him “heartache”.Greggor Grey, who has so far served 17 years of a sentence for robbery, escaped from HMP Sudbury in Derbyshire in mid-May. Continue reading...

Diana Reid’s Love & Virtue wins book of the year and literary fiction category at Australian Book Industry Association’s annual awards in Sydney

However volatile her subject matter, her art never tells you what to feel, writes the Guardian’s art critic – although she could indulge in a kind of knockabout buffoonery

Minister expresses support for PM and admits making ‘mistake’ in standing against him in 2016Michael Gove has ruled out running against Boris Johnson again as a potential new Conservative party leader, as he admitted making a “mistake” by doing so in 2016.The levelling up secretary said he believed the prime minister was “doing a good job” after more than 40% of Tory MPs called on him to quit. Continue reading...

Under new laws, anyone found with amount that falls within threshold will be fined, but not charged

Age to legally buy tobacco should increase from 18 and continue to rise, government-commissoned review suggestsThe age at which people can legally buy tobacco in England should rise from 18 by one year every year until eventually no one can buy tobacco, a radical government-commissioned review has recommended in an effort to end smoking-related harm.The review recommends 15 interventions to give the government the best chance of meeting its national target to be smoke-free by 2030. They include promoting vapes as an effective “swap to stop” tool to help people quit smoking, as well as improving prevention in the NHS so smokers are offered advice and support to quit at every interaction they have with health services. Continue reading...

Defamation trial hears testimony from woman first employed as Burston family cleaner before becoming political staffer. Burston denies all allegations

Exclusive: Guardian Australia uncovers multiple near-identical phrases and scenes in John Hughes’ book The Dogs and Svetlana Alexievich’s nonfiction work The Unwomanly Face of War

Premier announces $742m for end-of-life care while acknowledging he ‘failed’ to address issue as treasurer

No one was hurt in the apparent drive-by shooting at the Sunnybanks Hills property

This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here

Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, who recently stood down from Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art after 22 years, recalls ‘being yelled at’ by male politicians in new interview

Retailer aims to start work on flats furnished with own products in Bromley, Ealing and Reading in 2024John Lewis has chosen Bromley, Ealing and Reading as the pilot locations for its venture into building branded homes for the rental market, as the staff-owned retailer tries to create new communities around its stores.Unveiling its plans in detail for the first time, the company said its one-, two- and three-bedroom flats will be furnished with John Lewis products and come complete with communal areas such as roof gardens, gyms, flexible office space or meeting rooms where events will be hosted to bring people together. The spaces will be used to host community and social events, attracting renters with an offer that is about “more than just four walls”, the company said. Continue reading...

Katharine Birbalsingh says aim is to move away from fixation on small minority of rags to riches talesThe new head of the Social Mobility Commission will call for a move away from the fixation with rags to riches tales of “caretaker’s daughter goes to Oxbridge and becomes a top surgeon” and highlight instead the value of “small steps up the ladder”.In her inaugural speech as the SMC’s chair, Katharine Birbalsingh will appeal for a radical rethink of what social mobility means, saying it should not just be about opening up elite pathways for the few. She will also echo the government’s view that widening access to university has “not always brought the dividends hoped for”, although more than 80% of sixth-formers at the school where she is headteacher went on to Russell Group universities last year. Continue reading...

PM pledges £80m of government funding to move industry to circular modelThere has been little cause for celebration in Downing Street this week. But on Wednesday evening the prime minister, accompanied by his wife, Carrie Johnson, and their children, hosted a champagne reception in honour of sustainable fashion.Boris Johnson pledged £80m in government funding for a programme of structural change which the British Fashion Council believes can move the UK industry toward a circular model. Continue reading...

Russian state media shows Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, appearing in court in DonetskRussia-Ukraine war: latest developmentsTwo British men captured by Russian forces while fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers face 20 years in prison, according to a video shared by Russian state media.Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who were serving in the Ukrainian military, were detained in April while fighting in Mariupol. Continue reading...

Credit Suisse, one of Gupta’s main creditors, started insolvency hearings against GFG companies last monthSanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance has failed in an attempt to have a winding-up order thrown out on the grounds that the metals group’s struggles were caused by the coronavirus pandemic.Credit Suisse, one of Gupta’s main creditors, started insolvency hearings against GFG companies last month, in a move that raised concerns for the jobs of 35,000 workers in the UK and in operations around the world. US bank Citibank has brought the claim on behalf of Credit Suisse, its client. Continue reading...

Seven Frenchmen and Italian on trial for theft of work thought to be a tribute to victims of Paris attacksThieves who stole a mural by the street artist Banksy on an emergency exit door of the Bataclan concert hall in Paris used a crowbar and angle grinder to prise it free, in a crime that lasted just minutes, a French court heard.The work depicting a veiled and mournful figure is thought to have been a tribute to victims of the Islamist militant attacks against the Bataclan and other entertainment venues in Paris in 2015. Continue reading...

Analysis: The question is not what is in the Khan review but whether its recommendations will be implement• Plan to raise smoking age to 21 to be unveiled amid cabinet splitsWhile much has been made recently of the danger posed by soaring obesity levels, tobacco remains the biggest public health threat the world has ever faced.Despite its risks being known for decades, 1.3 billion people globally still use tobacco products. They kill 8 million people every year, and more than one million of whom die from exposure to second-hand smoke. Continue reading...

Police say 14 children on school trip injured on road adjacent to 2016 fatal attackA man has been detained after driving his car into a crowd of people in western Berlin, killing a teacher and injuring 14 children who were on a school trip, police have said.The man drove into people on a street corner before getting the car back on the road and crashing into a shop window further on. Continue reading...

Charges against former film producer relate to alleged assault in London in 1996, CPS saysHarvey Weinstein will face two charges of indecent assault against a woman in London in 1996, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced.After a review of evidence gathered by the Metropolitan police, the CPS gave the force the green light to charge the former Hollywood film producer on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Analysis: while Tories try to make capital from Corbyn era, Labour seeks to put onus on ministers to resolve rowNo one asked Boris Johnson about the looming train and tube strikes at Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions, but he managed to shoehorn the subject in anyway, to have a dig at Keir Starmer.“Have we heard any condemnation yet, from the opposition, of the RMT and their reckless and wanton strike?” he asked in response a question about passport backlogs. Continue reading...

Candida Uderzo says she likes to be autonomous as she joins at least two other centenarians deemed fit to drive in ItalyAn Italian woman has had her driving licence renewed at the age of 100, becoming at least the country’s third centenarian in recent years deemed fit to get behind the wheel.Candida Uderzo was given a new licence after passing an eye test at a driving school in the northern province of Vicenza. Continue reading...

John Pettigrew lands £6.5m payday, far outstripping the average FTSE 100 remunerationThe chief executive of National Grid has been criticised after he saw his pay packet swell by more than £1m while Britons battle rising energy bills.John Pettigrew landed a £6.5m payday for the year to the end of March 2022, a year which saw the country plunged into an energy crisis. Continue reading...

Suicide bombings threatened after ‘slandering’ comments made by Hindu Bharatiya Janata partyAl-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent has said it plans to carry out suicide bombings in revenge for the “insulting and slandering” remarks made by leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party about the prophet Muhammad and his wife, Aisha.The Indian news agency ANI has reported that in a letter dated 6 June, AQIS – the regional branch of al-Qaida – warned that Hindu nationalist “terrorists should now await their end in Delhi and Bombay and in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat”. Continue reading...