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Government sources play down idea of cabinet split as business secretary quashes idea recently mooted by chancellorGovernment sources have played down the idea of a cabinet split over a possible windfall tax on energy companies as the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, firmly quashed the idea, days after it was mooted by the chancellor.In a search for solutions to a crisis over energy prices, and the cost of living more widely, Rishi Sunak said a windfall tax, as advocated by Labour, was possible if energy companies did not properly reinvest bumper profits. Continue reading...

More than 95,000 sign petition urging the release of geologist Jim Fitton, detained over artefact smuggling allegationsMinisters are under increasing pressure to help free a retired British geologist at risk of facing the death penalty in Iraq over smuggling allegations.A petition urging the release of father-of-two Jim Fitton, 66, has received more than 95,000 signatures in the three days since it was launched. Continue reading...

The TV couple are to appear in Australia’s long-running soap opera as production ends after 37 yearsThey were one of television’s most popular couples, and now they’re getting back together, especially for you – or at least for viewers of Neighbours. Scott and Charlene, played by Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue, will return after more than 30 years for the show’s finale.Jason Herbison, executive producer of the Australian soap, said the pair were “the ultimate Neighbours couple and it would not feel right to end the show without them”. Continue reading...

Fee-for-service funding model cannot keep up with cost of complex primary care needs, community organisations say

More than a month after homes were destroyed by the deluge, thousands of northern rivers’ residents still struggle to find secure accommodationFlood victims in New South Wales’ northern rivers say they are still struggling to find accommodation, as some are kicked out of caravan parks to make way for tourists.Linda Barney, 69, and her husband, Bob, lost everything in the floods. Their house in Coraki is destroyed and they are not sure when they will be able to return to it. Continue reading...

Opponents say preference decision is a strategic move that could alienate moderate voters within the party

Standards committee report calls for reforms to all-party parliamentary groups to avert ‘next great parliamentary scandal’Hostile foreign states and others pose a “real risk” of gaining access and wielding influence through all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs), the Commons standards committee has warned.Calling for reforms to avert what it described as the “next great parliamentary scandal”, the committee also voiced concerns that a dramatic rise in the number of the informal cross-party groups also risks “inappropriate influence and access” because they are so difficult to monitor. Continue reading...

Russia turns off the gas, fears Moldova could be pulled into the war, and on the ground in Zaporizhzhia

Analysis: In the days before last year’s budget, $4.2bn in commitments were announced. Just $277m has been announced ahead of Tuesday’s

Anto and Samsul Bahar were 15 when they were jailed in a maximum security facility in Western Australia

In a further twist the islands’ premier has been arrested in a Miami sting operation on suspicion of drug traffickingBritain is poised to impose a form of direct rule over the British Virgin Islands after the Caribbean territory’s premier was arrested in Miami on suspicion of drug running, and a UK-appointed commission of inquiry found rampant failings in governance.Andrew Fahie was due to appear in court in Miami on Friday, a day after he was arrested by the US Drug Enforcement Agency in an elaborate sting operation that also snared the chief executive of the BVI port authority and her son. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you can read more about Neil Parish and the investigation into whether he watched pornography in the Commons hereStudents of newspaper hyperbole will be reading with admiration today the Daily Mail’s “damning six-page dossier” about Labour and lockdown breaches. For obvious reasons, the Conservatives are keen to suggest that Boris Johnson was not the only senior politician to have broken Covid rules (although he and Rishi Sunak are the only ones to have been fined by the police) and today the Mail has gone in all guns blazing with a report implying Keir Starmer’s attacks on Boris Johnson over Partygate have been hypocritical.The main story focuses on the incident where Starmer was photographed drinking beer in an office with Labour staffers when they were campaigning in the run-up to the Hartlepool byelection in April 2021. Starmer says they were just having a meal break, the Durham police has said no Covid rules were broken.Keir Starmer was in the workplace, meeting a local MP in her constituency office and participating in an online Labour party event. They paused for food as the meeting was during the evening. No rules were broken.There is simply no comparison between standing in a kitchen having something to eat between meetings, with multiple, flagrant rule-breaking drinks parties at the heart of government, dismissed by lies at the despatch box and resulting in an apology to the Queen.There is little credibility in any argument that the UK government either did not anticipate the implications of what it had agreed, or was constrained and unable to choose any other option.The facts and choices had been spelt out clearly over the whole period from 2016 onwards and the detail of the provisions (notably most of the applicable EU law contained in annex 2 to the protocol) were known at latest in autumn 2018. Continue reading...

Group controlled by Mike Ashley blames logjam in audit industry but expects pre-tax profits between £300m and £350mFrasers Group, the owner of Sports Direct, House of Fraser and Flannels, has delayed publication of its full annual results for the third time in four years, blaming a logjam in the audit industry.The group, which is controlled by Mike Ashley, said full results would be delayed by at least a month as “the timing of the acquisition and resource constraints within the audit industry as a whole”, meant it could not include figures for its newly acquired business, Studio Retail, until September. Continue reading...

City council is reportedly preparing materials to initiate criminal proceedings over mass cultural looting

Strong first-quarter results come as group warns of ‘uncertain’ economy because of cost of living crisisNatWest has reported a 40% jump in first-quarter profits but warned about the UK’s “uncertain” economy amid the cost of living crisis, saying it had referred more than 2,000 customers to debt experts at Citizens Advice.The banking group – formerly known as Royal Bank of Scotland – beat expectations after reporting a jump in pre-tax profits to £1.2bn compared with £885m a year earlier. That was compared with analyst forecasts of a 15% drop in profits to £755m. Continue reading...

Development comes on eve of libel trial over information from Rooney’s private Instagram accountRebekah Vardy has suggested her agent may have leaked stories about Coleen Rooney to the Sun, the high court has heard, in a last-minute change of approach on the eve of the “Wagatha Christie” libel trial.The two women are locked in an expensive and increasingly messy libel battle over accusations Vardy passed information from Rooney’s private Instagram account to the tabloid. Continue reading...

Analysis: The Kremlin’s mounting offensive comes as Boris Johnson and Jens Stoltenburg warn war could last for years

Officers from financial regulator, federal police and public prosecutor raid Germany’s largest lenderGerman authorities have raided Deutsche Bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt over suspected money laundering at the country’s largest lender.Officers from the financial regulator BaFin, the federal police, and the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office launched a raid on the bank’s glass-panelled offices – known locally as the “twin towers” – on Friday morning after securing a search warrant from the local court. Continue reading...

National Trust puts artist’s largest work on display at Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire after removal of yellowed varnishLayers of yellowed varnish have been painstakingly removed from a John Constable painting of Waterloo Bridge to reveal new detail of the early 19th-century Thames skyline and a bright blue sky.The painting – the largest created by Constable – “has been dramatically transformed by the conservation treatment”, said Sarah Maisey, senior remedial conservator for paintings at the National Trust, which undertook the work. Continue reading...

Allison Bailey says Garden Court chambers and Stonewall wrongly treated her gender-critical views as transphobicA barrister was unlawfully discriminated against by her chambers, which, encouraged by Stonewall, wrongly treated her gender-critical views as transphobic and bigoted, an employment tribunal has been told.Allison Bailey is suing Garden Court chambers and Stonewall after she was asked by her chambers to delete two tweets criticising the LGBTQ+ charity’s position on trans rights and which Stonewall had complained about. Continue reading...

Andrew Fahie is due in court on drug charges in Miami after arrest following months-long DEA operationIn mid-October, as Sir Gary Hickinbottom’s commission of inquiry into the government of British Virgin Islands led by the premier, Andrew Fahie, was taking laborious public oral evidence for a 44th day, a US Drug Enforcement Administration informant was, according to court papers, meeting some self-proclaimed Lebanese Hezbollah operatives on the BVI island of Tortola to discuss how to shift cocaine through the territory en route to Puerto Rico, Miami and New York.Hickinbottom was taking mind-numbingly dull evidence on how to apply for BVI citizenship, and whether the process was open to manipulation. Continue reading...

The actor, who is reprising his role in Jez Butterworth’s celebrated play, points out that leading politicians’ school Eton has extensive theatre facilitiesIt is the part of the theatre programme where the cast usually list their biggest roles, awards and assorted appearances on The Bill and Casualty. But in the programme for the new West End run of the hit play Jerusalem, Mark Rylance has also used his actor biography to criticise cuts to arts education.“If, in modern day England, an institution like Eton deems drama important enough to have two theatres, why are we allowing our government to cut arts education from the life of the rest of our young people and our hard-pressed teachers,” he writes, in a biography that points up his schoolteacher parents’ devotion to amateur dramatics and his grandfather’s experience of acting in a prisoner of war camp. Continue reading...

Firm to pay staff in US, UK and other countries flat rates regardless of their region’s living costsAirbnb staff will be able to work from almost anywhere they want, the company has announced, and they won’t see their pay docked if they move outside metropolitan areas.The new model will apply to staff in the US, but also those in the UK and other countries. To make it work, the company said it would focus in-person collaboration on roughly quarterly get-togethers and aim to bundle work together into two product releases a year, its chief executive and co-founder, Brian Chesky, said. Continue reading...

Meri Mion, 90, was 13 when soldiers took her birthday cake as it cooled on windowsill in San PietroRepentant American soldiers have presented an Italian woman with a birthday cake to make up for the one their predecessors stole from her as it cooled on a windowsill 77 years ago.It was the eve of Meri Mion’s 13th birthday when US troops arrived in her village of San Pietro, near Vicenza in northern Italy, to fight against German soldiers. Continue reading...

NCA launches investigation into PPE Medpro, which secured £200m in Covid contractsThe National Crime Agency has launched a potential fraud investigation into a PPE company linked to Michelle Mone and searched the Tory peer’s shared home.The NCA investigation is into PPE Medpro, a company that secured more than £200m in government contracts near the start of the pandemic without public tender. Continue reading...

Ukrainian capital was rocked by Russian missile strikes while UN secretary general visited

Prime minister responds after Solomon Islands PM says he heard about Aukus pact through media; Labor leader heads to Perth after week in Covid isolation as deputy Richard Marles tests positive; at least 26 coronavirus deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Sydney MP Alex Greenwich says he will continue work with NSW government after meeting with premier and transgender advocates

Rise in infections appears to be driven by Omicron sub-variants, say health officialsSouth Africa may be entering a fifth Covid wave earlier than expected after a sustained rise in infections over the past 14 days that seems to be driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub-variants, health officials and scientists have said.The country that has recorded the most coronavirus cases and deaths on the African continent only exited a fourth wave around January and had predicted a fifth wave could start in May or June, early in the southern hemisphere winter. Continue reading...

Red Crescent says at least 42 injured at site revered by Muslims and Jews as police fire rubber bullets at youths throwing rocksIsraeli police have fired rubber bullets and stun grenades towards Palestinian youths throwing rocks in the latest outbreak of violence at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, a site revered by Muslims and Jews.At least 42 Palestinians were injured in the early morning clashes on Friday at Islam’s third-holiest site, the Palestine Red Crescent said. Continue reading...

Average price of property in April rises to £267,620, the ninth straight month of growth, says NationwideHouse prices continued to climb in April but the rate of growth is slowing as soaring inflation and the cost of living crisis starts to affect the market, figures show.The average amount paid for a home in the UK climbed 0.3% to £267,620 in April, Nationwide found, the ninth consecutive month of growth. Continue reading...

Bruce Lehrmann, who is pleading not guilty, wanted a temporary or permanent stay on proceedings but the trial is scheduled for JuneThe man accused of raping Brittany Higgins has lost his bid to delay the ACT supreme court trial.On Friday, chief justice Lucy McCallum rejected an application by Bruce Lehrmann for a temporary or permanent stay, along with his bid to have media articles about the alleged sexual assault taken down. Continue reading...

With funds for anti-virals and other measure dwindling, some experts are concerned the US is too sanguine about future surgesThe US has left the “pandemic phase” at least for now, chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said this week, at the same time that the White House presses for urgently needed Covid-19 funding. But as cases continue mounting around the globe, the pandemic shows no signs of ending yet – and conflicting pictures offered by top health officials may hamper the renewal of critical Covid funds and efforts like vaccination campaigns.In an interview on Tuesday, Fauci painted an optimistic, if mixed, picture. “We are certainly, right now in this country, out of the pandemic phase,” he said, before adding, “Pandemic means a widespread, throughout the world, infection that spreads rapidly among people.” Continue reading...

BeyondBlue chief executive tells Victorian Covid inquiry lockdown led to more demand for services ‘regardless of where it was’

Reason party leader to reconsider her support for state government after being put below Derryn Hinch’s Justice party on how-to-vote cards

In response to British foreign secretary’s warning that Beijing must ‘play by the rules’, ministry of foreign affairs says Nato is stirring conflict

Soldier has told court allegation he unlawfully killed a man on SAS raid on Darwan village ‘is a lie’

Manasseh Sogavare says he wasn’t told about Aukus pact until it was public while Scott Morrison accuses counterpart of parroting China’s lines

Changing climate means infestations of pesky insects could become more common, experts sayThey smell like sweet meat, destroy vacuum cleaners and are wreaking havoc across rural New Zealand.An unusually wet summer has brought joy to farmers and grief to residents, as a plague of cluster flies descends on homes in the Canterbury and Wairarapa regions. Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. You can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war in our new live blogMore than 8,500 alleged war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine are under investigation, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office has said.A total of 8,653 cases have been reported and 217 children have been confirmed to have been killed, the office added.Unfortunately this is the type of step, the type of almost weaponising energy supplies that we had predicted that Russia could take in this conflict.

Between 11 and 17 dolphins killed each year, government says, though independent observers put rate as high as 50 a year

Interview with Time magazine reveals that Russian troops made two attempts to storm the presidential compound while Zelenskiy and his family were inside

Australian Electoral Commission refers Malcolm Heffernan to federal police for nominating in NSW and WA electorates

Passengers scramble in Ben Gurion’s departure hall after tourists show ‘souvenir’ collected in Golan HeightsAn American family set off a bomb scare at Israel’s main airport when they showed security inspectors an unexploded shell that they found while visiting the Golan Heights and had packed for their return trip, authorities said.Video circulated on social media showed panicked passengers scattering at Ben Gurion Airport’s departure hall near Tel Aviv on Thursday. Continue reading...

Former soldier appeared ‘intoxicated, acting in a belligerent manner’ when confronted with a search warrant, court documents sayPolice feared one of Ben Roberts-Smith’s SAS witnesses in his defamation case was going to destroy evidence on his phone when they confronted him with a search warrant in a city hotel late on Tuesday night.The former soldier, who hours earlier had finished giving evidence to the defamation trial, appeared “intoxicated, acting in a belligerent, unreasonable and aggressive manner”, court documents say. Continue reading...

Macmillan survey suggests hundreds of thousands of people with cancer struggling to make ends meetHundreds of thousands of cancer patients are putting their lives at risk by cutting back on meals, heating and other essentials as a result of the cost of living crisis, a charity has said.Macmillan Cancer Support said it was “hugely concerning” that large numbers of people living with the disease were having to resort to drastic cost-cutting measures to make ends meet. Continue reading...

American Civil Liberties Union’s general counsel testifies that at least $500,000 came from fund connected to Elon MuskThe ACLU helped Amber Heard draft the Washington Post article accusing Johnny Depp of abuse after the organization was promised a $3.5m donation from her divorce – though at least $500,000 of it eventually came from a fund connected to Tesla founder Elon Musk, jurors in the Depp-Heard defamation trial heard on Thursday.The American Civil Liberties Union’s general counsel, Terence Dougherty, testified that the organization decided to propose Heard as an ambassador for the group after Heard pledged the sizeable donation over 10 years. Continue reading...

Former Four Corners presenter has won five Walkley awards in a career with the ABC stretching back to 2008

Victims’ commissioner calls goal of returning prosecution levels to pre-2017 levels ‘a pipe dream’Sex crimes logged by police in England and Wales have reached a record high amid warnings from the victims’ commissioner that the government’s aim to boost prosecutions to levels last seen five years ago is “a pipe dream”.Police-recorded sexual offences increased to their highest level over a 12-month period, with 183,587 in the year to December 2021, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Continue reading...