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China-based retailer swung to $99m loss in first quarter and faces scrutiny over its environmental footprint

Defence minister says police need time' but in the meantime' the government has told platforms to take down content glorifying dangerous drivingThe government has promised that business rate valuations will be made fairer" for pubs and hotels in England and Wales, as Andy Burnham faces growing calls to help the UK's struggling hospitality sector.An independent review for England and Wales will look at improving the system for hospitality venues, which were hit by higher business rate bills this year after the end of pandemic-era relief and when new revaluations took effect. Continue reading...

UK PM to announce support for France in setting up missile assembly lines during his Kyiv visit, as coalition of willing meets later today

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Nidia Webb, who is legally settled in UK, falls foul of known issue' with Home Office's digitised immigration processA woman who is legally settled in the UK was left stranded at a Spanish airport after the Home Office's post-Brexit visa system mixed her up with her twin sister.Nidia Webb fell foul of what she was told was a known issue" with the eVisa, which was brought in as part of the government's drive to digitise the UK's immigration system but has faced problems that have caused concern for thousands of people. Continue reading...

Police arrest five men and search six properties including the union's Victorian headquarters

Charles Perrottet appeared to be furthering fugitive developer Jean Nassif's interests by undermining adversaries, a former NSW MP claims

Just 8,383 jobs for people leaving university were advertised in July, says recruitment website Adzuna

Phillip Island's iconic' little penguins get first bird flu vaccinations in what is thought to be largest program of its kind

Pair are offspring of two beavers who mysteriously arrived in Pensthorpe nature reserve near Fakenham in DecemberWild beaver kits have been born in Norfolk for the first time in more than 500 years.The pair of newborns are the offspring of two free-living beavers who mysteriously arrived in Pensthorpe nature reserve near Fakenham in December. Continue reading...

Radio host's indecent assault and sexual touching trial enters fourth week, with shock jock Jason Morrison telling court complainant C appeared stuck' beside Jones

Prime minister Christopher Luxon's party to introduce bill seeking the ban, citing harm to a generation of childrenNew Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon has said his party will introduce a bill in parliament that seeks to ban children under 16 from using social media, proposing fines of up to 10% of a platform's global revenue for non-compliance.The bill would require social media platforms to take reasonable steps to verify users' ages, including by utilising existing account information, facial technology and digital identity documents. Continue reading...

Foundayo will be available on private prescription, with pharmacists warning of counterfeit GLP-1 problemA new daily pill that treats diabetes and helps with weight loss will be available in UK pharmacies from Monday.Pharmacists said the move would be welcome for people who cannot use weight-loss jabs, but also issued a warning over the growing problem of fake, unlicensed or counterfeit versions of GLP-1 tablets. Continue reading...

Poll also finds sizeable majorities who believe it should be easier to install air con in homesGiven the choice, more people across five major European nations including the UK favour encouraging the adoption of air conditioning over keeping carbon emissions down, a survey has found.After four extreme heatwaves that have caused thousands of excess deaths across the continent, the survey showed between 30% and 52% of people in six countries had feared for their household's health in temperatures close to or above 40C (104F). Continue reading...

Study finds device brings significant fall in chest pain in 75% of patients, but further trials and NHS approval are neededIt's an amazing relief, both physically and emotionally, to be able to live my life again normally, without feeling that I'm limited all the time in what I can do."Cristian Jensen is describing the difference that an implant inserted in his chest - to reduce the symptoms of his debilitating angina - has had on his life. Continue reading...

Press Association given list of 65 items from publicly owned collection that have gone missing since 2024A photograph of Benjamin Disraeli, an engraved portrait of William Wilberforce and a cartoon of Barbara Castle have all been misplaced by the UK parliamentary authorities, a freedom of information (FoI) request has revealed.The Press Association has been given a list of more than 65 works of art that have been missing since 2024. They also include a photograph of Margaret Beckett, the UK's first female foreign secretary and the first woman to lead Labour, and a satirical cartoon by Martin Rowson from the Conservative leadership battle of 1995. Continue reading...

US agency releases plan to lease millions of hectares of seabed off the coast of the Northern Mariana Islands and GuamA US government plan to lease out millions of hectares of seabed near the Mariana Trench for deep sea exploration has drawn opposition from US territories in the Pacific, as the Trump administration remains locked in a race with China for control of critical ocean minerals.On Tuesday, the Marine Mineral Administration (MMA), an agency under the US department of the interior, released a proposal to auction deep sea mining leases for 28m hectares (69m acres) of seafloor off the coast of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. Continue reading...

Review will look at improving system for English and Welsh hospitality venues before next revaluation date in 2029The government has promised that business rate valuations will be made fairer" for pubs and hotels in England and Wales, as Andy Burnham faces growing calls to help the UK's struggling hospitality sector.An independent review for England and Wales will look at improving the system for hospitality venues, which were hit by higher business rate bills this year after the end of pandemic-era relief and when new revaluations took effect. Continue reading...

Resolution Foundation suggests economy may finally be emerging from shadow of 2008 financial crisisProductivity in the UK - a vital measure of economic health - is growing more strongly than official figures suggest, according to analysis from the Resolution Foundation.The thinktank suggests the chancellor, John Healey, may have inherited an economy finally starting to emerge from the long shadow of the 2008 global financial crisis. Continue reading...

PM will use independence day trip to announce sharing of classified information about Storm Shadow componentsBritain will boost Ukraine's capacity to make its own long-range missiles, Andy Burnham will announce on Monday, as he travels to Kyiv for the country's independence day on his first foreign visit as prime minister.Burnham will arrive in the Ukrainian capital on Monday morning at a crucial time in the war, with Kyiv braced for another wave of Russian missile attacks and the country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, facing his most direct domestic challenge. Continue reading...

Dump site in Conakry, which minister had just promised to move, collapsed after heavy rain in west African stateA landslide at a huge waste dump in Guinea's capital has killed 30 people, the government said on Sunday, after heavy rains overnight prompted it to collapse, engulfing nearby tents and shacks.The incident occurred less than a week after the government announced plans to close the site and relocate the waste because of the threat it posed, especially during the rainy season, which causes landslides and fatal flash floods each year in crowded, underdeveloped cities across parts of West Africa. Continue reading...

UK-born married couples under 35 with children would get priority under proposals to be outlined by Farage's partyBritish citizens who were born abroad would be made to wait longer for social housing under proposals to be announced by Reform UK on Monday.Nigel Farage's party will announce the policy at a press conference in London. Under the policy, people born in the UK and young married couples with children would be given priority for social housing. Continue reading...

Emotional tributes paid to PCs Matthew Blades and Tom Clough whose vehicle was in a head-on collision with car travelling wrong wayCleveland police have published photographs of PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough who died when a car travelling the wrong way on the A66 crashed head-on into their police vehicle.Two 17-year-old boys were among the seven people who were killed in the incident on Teesside. Continue reading...

PM Mark Carney says we got attacked' as tariffs come into force on items from hockey sticks to tongue depressors

Many tools fail to help victims find hidden cameras, microphones and trackers, leaving them at risk of ongoing surveillanceCommercial detectors intended to help domestic abuse victims find hidden spying devices may actually give them a false sense of security, a study has found.The consumer detection tools claim to identify hidden cameras, microphones or trackers through methods such as signal-strength readings, infrared lens detection and scanning for wifi or Bluetooth devices. Continue reading...

Government says it hopes clubs will end jersey deals with wagering companies earlier, but calls it a commercial decision

Exclusive: New entrants the only cohort making more loan applications amid interest rate rises and tax changes, mortgage broker says

Incident marks apparent escalation by Tehran in its in retaliation against UK over allowing US to use British basesHackers linked to Iran have been blamed for a cyber-attack that caused a British power plant to be temporarily shut down.The incident involved a small-scale energy generator, according to the UK government, which said that at no point was there a risk to the wider energy system. Continue reading...

Embassy in London says Andrey Kelin left last month after seven years in diplomatic postRussia has withdrawn its ambassador to the UK, it has emerged, as the Kremlin continues to try to put pressure on Britain over its support for Ukraine.Andrey Kelin left last month after seven years in the diplomatic post, according to the Russian embassy in London. Continue reading...

President sharply criticises proposal, saying elections right now are a tsunami for the state that will split Ukraine'Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said holding elections in Ukraine during wartime would risk splitting the country at a time when Russia is amassing ballistic missiles and considering whether to mobilise an extra 300,000 soldiers.The Ukrainian president, responding for the first time to a demand made by the sacked former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, sharply criticised an idea that he said was impractical given Russia appeared to have no interest in a ceasefire. Continue reading...

Grassroots groups to urge PM to break with Starmer policy and impose full arms embargo on IsraelGrassroots Labour groups are gearing up for a conference showdown with Andy Burnham over Gaza, as the party's members seek to force the prime minister to recognise Israel's actions as a genocide and impose a full arms embargo.Momentum, Labour & Palestine, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) plan to ramp up pressure on Burnham before his first Labour conference as prime minister next month. Continue reading...

Researchers say texts from 12th to 15th centuries hint at a culture which has not even been imagined'Unprecedented insights into the literary and intellectual life on the island of Guernsey during the middle ages have been revealed through the discovery of 17 medieval manuscript fragments.Dating from between the 12th and 15th centuries, they offer evidence of wide-ranging reading tastes, with everything from an extract from a play and an Ovid poem to passages from the Bible and a travel text. Continue reading...

Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen broke record for farthest distance traveled from EarthThe crew of the historic Artemis II lunar flyby mission have earned the US's top space medal, officials have announced.Cmdr Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are set to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on 28 August, the US space agency Nasa said. Continue reading...

New quotas to protect UK firms and jobs appear to be having opposite effect in products such as galvanised steelAt Tata Steel's factory in Llanwern, south Wales, production lines that should be running full-time are now falling quiet for parts of the day, with workers being put on to maintenance and cleaning work while machines sit idle.There aren't enough orders to keep them running all the time, the company says, because of a surge of cheap steel coming from Asian countries that is threatening the viability of several UK sites that make similar products, and risk hundreds of jobs. Continue reading...

Move would allow mayors to greenlight large-scale developments and have more say on national housing fundingAndy Burnham will give mayors new powers to take control of local planning decisions and greenlight large-scale developments in proposals to be presented next week.The move will allow mayors to call in" the decisions and direct councils to take them forward or refuse them. They will also be able to grant upfront permission so developers can start building without having to apply. Continue reading...

Two studies will be used to shape government policy amid claims about a former franchisee who took his own lifeMinisters have commissioned a pair of in-depth reports into how franchising businesses are policed in the UK, as the government considers introducing new laws after high-profile allegations about conduct in the sector.The action follows a Guardian investigation last December, which revealed claims that Adrian Howe, a former Vodafone employee who had agreed to start a franchise in 2018, had taken his own life after pressure from the FTSE 100 telecoms group. Continue reading...

Company says decision comes after spate of antisocial behaviour since free travel scheme was introducedFor some, it is a quotidian nuisance that inevitably occurs when you are in the vicinity of teenagers. For others, it is an expression of modern-day lawlessness among young people.Whatever view you take, antisocial behaviour on public transport has become a hot debate - and with the introduction of free bus travel for kids aged 5 to 15 across England during August, matters have come to a head in Staffordshire. Continue reading...

Exclusive: analysis risks deepening perception of unequal protection under the law'Killers who take the lives of black people have a greater chance of getting away with their crimes than those who target white people, new research shows.Analysis of unsolved homicides in London between 2019 and 2023 found non-white British people made up 61% of victims. When researchers assessed unsolved murders, 92.9% of cases in the capital were connected with a victim who was non-white. Continue reading...

Victims have lost tens of thousands - and in one case 300,000 - due to fake emails from solicitor or estate agentYou are poised to move house and are awaiting the solicitor's instructions that things are ready to go and it is time to hand over your deposit. When the email arrives giving you their bank details, you set up the transfer and move the cash. And then the solicitor calls to ask where the money is.Conveyancing fraud involves criminals getting access to an email chain between homebuyers and their solicitors or estate agents and requesting payment to a bank account they control. Sometimes the solicitor has been hacked, but often the homebuyer has been the victim of a phishing exercise. Continue reading...

Surge in proposals follows Labour's lifting of de facto ban, with about 45 plans submitted in the year to MarchPlans for new onshore windfarms in England have reached their highest annual level in a decade, after the government overturned the Conservatives' de facto ban in 2015.About 45 applications for new onshore windfarms were submitted in the year to March,according to a Guardian analysis of government data. Continue reading...

Letter written in 1847 to Sandbach, Tinne and Company's Liverpool office reveals it engaged in practice after receiving taxpayer-funded compensation, book saysWhen Britain abolished slavery, plantation owners from powerful families notoriously received huge sums in compensation, while those who were enslaved got nothing.Now evidence has come to light that Sandbach, Tinne and Company - a corporation closely linked to the merchants who got the biggest taxpayer-funded compensation payouts - continued to traffic enslaved Africans illegally after abolition to Guyana, in South America. Continue reading...

Watchdog launches inquiry into collision in which seven people died involving police car and another vehicleTwo police officers who died in a car crash near Middlesbrough in the early hours of Saturday have been named.Police constables Matthew Blades and Tom Clough were among seven people killed after their marked police car collided with a Volkswagen Passat travelling the wrong way along the A66 in North Yorkshire. Continue reading...

This blog is now closedVictorian Labor expands on free dental care election promiseThe Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, and health minister, Ingrid Stitt, have held a press conference this morning off the back of their announcement yesterday that the Labor government would open 10 free public dental clinics if re-elected in November.You can't use a Medicare card for dental unless you've got a healthcare card or you are a category of a particular citizen, it is very difficult ... I've been visiting a lot of dentists over the past few weeks. There [are] waiting lists. People are in enormous, unbearable pain.This will be a cost of living measure but it will also make sure that we deal with the healthcare of some of the most vulnerable Victorians. This is really going to fill the gap that's been there for decades. Continue reading...

Opposition leader Jess Wilson says new dedicated court of criminal appeal would set precedents for tougher sentences

Friends close to Margarita Reutt are shocked she could allegedly plant bomb that killed Ukrainian defector Robert Shageev, while others recall a stubborn grit to see any plan throughIt was just after dawn in Sevastopol when a powerful explosion tore through a quiet square in a residential district of the Russian-occupied Crimean port city.Hidden inside a rubbish bin, a bomb containing the equivalent of about 500g of TNT detonated on 13 August as Robert Shageev, the deputy commander of a Russian Black Sea fleet submarine brigade, walked past in naval uniform. He was killed on the spot. Continue reading...

David Farley says party wants 100,000 migrant rural workers in addition to the 130,000 migration target it considers the true' number

Landmarks' side of the medal features the Allianz Arena in German city rather than Allianz Stadium in Sydney

Seal found dead at Beachport in South Australia presages significant losses', minister warns

Exclusive: campaigners warn 600-year-old New Barn at Harmondsworth could be shaken to pieces' by vibrationsSix hundred years after it was built, England's largest surviving medieval timber-framed barn could now be shaken to pieces" by aircraft vibrations, campaigners warn.The public has until 1 September to submit objections to the Heathrow airport expansion, which could threaten the survival of the New Barn at Harmondsworth, considered a remarkable example of medieval architecture. Continue reading...

Duchess of Sussex was believed to have been under consideration for season three of Guy Ritchie's crime caperThe Duchess of Sussex's reported casting in Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen has been withdrawn, it was reported.Tina Brown, the former editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, wrote on Saturday: I learned this morning that the casting of Meghan Markle in season 3 of Guy Ritchie's Netflix series The Gentlemen has been withdrawn. The backlash in the UK was so intense, it became untenable to go forward." Continue reading...