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Transport minister says he is ‘disgusted’ with treasurer over messages that allegedly asked reporter to question PM about Katherine Deves

Losses, low crowds, leaked texts, drunken brawls between teammates. These are inevitabilities in the AFL’s alpha male world. But at a club like Melbourne, they matter.In 1995, the previously undefeated Carlton hit a flat spot, dropping games to the bottom two sides. At training on Monday, captain Stephen Kernahan stopped the group mid lap and growled in that gravelly gutted voice of his – “we’re not losing another fucking game!” They completed their lap, beat Hawthorn by 102 points that weekend, won their next 16 games, and coasted to the Premiership. They were one of the great teams, a team that bridged the semi and fully professional eras, a team that pretty much coached itself, a team whipped back into shape with six guttural words.That wouldn’t cut it as man management these days. In 2022, football clubs stress the importance of culture, of connection, of roles, of safe environments, of talking through your problems. Melbourne would have done a lot of that this week. In the space of a fortnight, they’ve had two losses, injuries, illnesses, criticism of low crowds, leaked text messages, drunken sledges, haymakers, infected hands, community service penalties, an integrity department investigation and a conga line of question marks. What the fuck, as Steve Kernahan would no doubt ask, is going on here? Continue reading...

Appeal against plan to remove asylum seekers who arrive in the UK via unofficial routes due to take place on MondayProtests have taken place before a possible first flight removing asylum seekers to Rwanda, as unions said that officials should not be asked to take part in a policy that may subsequently be declared illegal.With the first flight in the deportation scheme scheduled to take place on Tuesday evening, activists also promised to target the Spanish charter airline understood to be providing the aircraft. Continue reading...

Temperatures expected to hit 32C in south-east England on Friday as forecasters warn heatwaves becoming more likelyTemperatures could reach the mid-30s in parts of the UK this week as forecasters said that Britain should brace itself for its “first properly hot summer’s day”.The coming months will also bring heatwaves which the Met Office has previously warned are becoming more likely due to climate change and the higher concentrations of COin the atmosphere. Continue reading...

Experts say scheme ‘not working well for everyone’ after Bill Shorten says Labor will target fraudsters

While Moodys have forecast a stable outlook, spending measures spark warning over triple A rating

Low-cost carrier makes ‘pre-emptive cancellations’ of about 40 flights a day to ensure no repeat of half-term disruptionEasyJet has reduced its flight schedule for the rest of June in an effort to overcome the travel chaos seen in the school holidays when staff shortages meant thousands of people were hit by last-minute cancellations.Britain’s biggest carrier has come under fire for its handling of the disruption which also saw passengers endure long delays. In a message to staff on Friday, its chief operating officer, Peter Bellew, said the carrier was making pre-emptive cancellations for the “coming days and weeks” to “increase resilience across the network”. Continue reading...

France’s president will be hoping his habit of planting a peck on a pate on polling days will bring him luck in parliamentary electionsEmmanuel Macron’s apparent habit of kissing a bald supporter on the head on election day has sparked French media speculation about whether it is a superstitious gesture as his centrists face a tough challenge from the left.As the French president went to vote in the first round of the parliamentary elections in the northern seaside resort of Le Touquet, where he has a home, he approached waiting supporters before grabbing the party activist Grégoire Campion and kissing him on his bald head. Continue reading...

Lib Dems say failure to provide it would look like ‘another attempt to cover up Boris Johnson’s repeated lies and law-breaking’Opposition parties have demanded ministers release their full legal advice over a bill to unilaterally amend the Northern Ireland protocol that is expected imminently in the Commons, saying refusing to do so risked accusations of a cover-up.The bill, which sets the UK on a potential collision course with the EU and which critics see as Boris Johnson’s latest attempt to mollify rebellious backbenchers and reassert his authority, is scheduled to be published on Monday afternoon. Continue reading...

Analysis: in a botched upgrade the fruit and veg Healthy Start scheme turned away numerous eligible low-income families

Jordan Gatley’s family say he died in the battle for the strategic eastern city of Severodonetsk

Regional governor says Azot plant, where hundreds of civilians are taking shelter, remains under Ukrainian control

Exclusive: she will sell the 1683 portrait of Steven Wolters by Caspar Netscher through Sotheby’s so her family can benefit from the proceedsAt the age of 101, a Dutch woman has been reunited with a painting that had been looted from her father by the Nazis during the second world war, but she has decided to sell it through Sotheby’s in London so that her family can benefit from the proceeds.Charlotte Bischoff van Heemskerck, a non-practising Baptist who joined the Dutch Resistance, had never given up hope of finding the 1683 portrait of Steven Wolters by Caspar Netscher, a Dutch master whose paintings are in the National Gallery, London. Continue reading...

Family of Nnamdi Kanu, a separatist leader, say he was seized and tortured in Kenya and then flown to NigeriaThe family of a British citizen have accused the foreign secretary of ignoring “overwhelming evidence” he was taken to Nigeria in an act of extraordinary rendition and failing to end his “unlawful” imprisonment there.Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a prominent separatist movement proscribed in Nigeria, has been held there since June last year. Continue reading...

Uttar Pradesh authorities demolish property belonging to people allegedly involved in unrestAuthorities in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh have demolished the homes of several people accused of involvement in riots last week triggered by derogatory remarks made by ruling party figures about the Prophet Muhammad.Muslims have taken to the streets across India in recent weeks to protest against anti-Islamic remarks by two members of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP). Continue reading...

Devey was made a CBE in 2009 for services to the transport industry and her charitable workThe former Dragons’ Den star Hilary Devey has died aged 65, her publicist has confirmed.She died on Saturday after a long illness in Morocco, where she had a property, Benjamin Webb said. Continue reading...

At a Tribeca film festival event, the singer discussed directing the short All Too Well as well as the difficult time she went through over control of her musicLines of young fans stretch down Broadway. Selfies aplenty snapped in a crowded lobby. Wild cheers as anticipation built inside, followed by intermittent shrieks during an opening speech from Tribeca film festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal. A short film screening that morphed into a pop concert, complete with sing-along.It’s safe to say this wasn’t your standard film festival event. But what else do you expect when the festival, now in its 20th year, decided to trot out the newly-minted Dr Taylor Swift to muse about film-making in honor of her music video-slash-short film aptly dubbed All Too Well: The Short Film? Released in November and directed by Swift herself, it fit like a glove into the festival as production partly took place in the actual Tribeca neighborhood in New York. Continue reading...

An Cailín Ciúin, as it is known in Irish, has earned more than €600,000 since its release last monthAn Irish-language film has shattered box office records in Ireland and the UK and become a standard-bearer for a language seldom seen on the big screen.The Quiet Girl has astonished the industry by quadrupling the previous record for an Irish language film, and by last week earning more than €610,000 (£518,000) since its release in mid-May. Continue reading...

Sales model of disruptors such as Cazoo and Carvana fail to spark with buyersAston Villa versus Everton is not usually considered to be among the Premier League’s biggest games, but it would probably have felt like a big deal to Alex Chesterman: both teams’ shirts were emblazoned by Cazoo, the online used-car retailer founded by the serial entrepreneur.The Cazoo derbies, both won by Villa this season, were the product of a marketing blitz, as the new company and its rivals raced to disrupt the secondhand car market. Yet Cazoo workers could think the money would have been better spent elsewhere: the company cut 750 jobs on Thursday as it warned a recession might delay its first profits. Continue reading...

Brahim Saadoun is a much-loved marine on active duty, they insist, and not a mercenary, as court in Donetsk claims

Far-right leader’s visit, which he called a ‘peace mission’, put on ice after criticism from government alliesMatteo Salvini has defended himself after the Russian embassy in Italy revealed it had funded the far-right League leader’s planned trip to Moscow last month.Salvini had intended to travel to the Russian capital on 29 May on what he called a “peace mission”, but the trip was put on ice after criticism from his allies in the Italian government, which had not been made aware of his plans. Continue reading...

John Penrose, who quit last week, says ethics adviser should also have more scope over any breaches by PMBoris Johnson’s former anti-corruption tsar, who resigned last week, has called for urgent reform of the standards rules around lobbying, as well as more scope for the independent adviser to hold the prime minister to account.John Penrose, a Conservative MP and former minister, said it was extremely important for democracy to fix problems with the UK’s standards regime affecting ministers, MPs, advisers and civil servants. Continue reading...

Warne and retired former world No 1 tennis player Ash Barty become officers of the Order of Australia

British Academy to feature large-scale project exploring prejudice based on how people speakDo you say bath as “barth”? Would you put a “plahster” on a cut? Does it matter if you don’t? Yes, it sadly does, say academics, who argue accent-ism is alive and well in England in 2022.A research team will next week set up shop at the British Academy’s grand headquarters overlooking the Mall in London, shining light on a large-scale project exploring prejudice against northern English accents and their speakers. Continue reading...

Head of union representing 80% of Border Force staff says policy is yet to be fully tested in courtsAsylum seekers should not be deported to Rwanda before the policy has been fully tested in the courts, a union leader has said, predicting the first removal flight will not take place as planned this week.An initial deportation flight under the plan to remove people who arrive in the UK via unofficial routes to the east African country is scheduled for Tuesday after a high court judge ruled on Friday that it could go ahead. Continue reading...

The journey to America, often via Nicaragua, has become more viable – and many are taking their chances at the borderOne morning last spring, 22-year-old Ernesto Hernández set out from the outskirts of Havana on a rickety boat hoping to cross the Florida Straits. The plan was to leave behind a dilapidating communist-ruled island in which he saw no future, and sail into an American dream.Nobody has heard from him, or the other six people onboard, since. Continue reading...

Fashion retailer’s suppliers in Pakistan have sacked hundreds without pay, as invoices for completed orders remain unpaidHundreds of garment workers in Pakistan making clothing for collapsed fast fashion brand Missguided say they have been left destitute and starving after not receiving salaries for more than four months.The workers, who typically earn between £100 and £160 a month, say that despite not being paid they have continued working even as the Manchester-based retailer went into administration, with suppliers claiming the company owes them millions of pounds for clothing already completed and shipped. Continue reading...

A report named hundreds of church leaders accused or found guilty of abusing children and says survivors were mistreatedAmerica’s largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination is being roiled by a sexual abuse scandal that casts a harsh light on one of the most politically powerful religious groups in the country as well as renewing a focus on its racist past.The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a collection of loosely affiliated member churches, boasting just under 15 million members, and is dominated by white members, who are usually deeply socially conservative. The convention has often been a powerful tool for rightwing organizing in recent years, especially on issues around abortion. Continue reading...

Railway Museum in quest to tell stories of the West Indian passengers caught on camera at Waterloo station as they began a new life in BritainSurrounded by luggage and fellow passengers, they were photographed arriving in smart clothes, high heels and fedoras, their faces tired and unsmiling as the underwhelming start of their new lives in the motherland is captured on camera.Now a museum is appealing to the public to identify the West Indians portrayed in the pictures, taken by Howard Grey at Waterloo station in London, which document the last boatload of Windrush generation arrivals to Britain in spring 1962 before a crackdown on the open-door policy for Commonwealth immigrants. Continue reading...

Judgment in the action against the Observer and Guardian’s Carole Cadwalladr will have huge implications for UK journalistsThe highly anticipated judgment in the libel action brought by multimillionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks against the Observer and Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr will be handed down this week. The landmark verdict will potentially have huge ramifications for press freedom and investigative reporting.Mrs Justice Steyn will deliver her judgment by email on Monday morning. The decision will be the culmination of an often rancorous three-year legal battle and could send a chilling effect throughout British journalism. Continue reading...

President’s centrists face challenge from historic leftwing alliance, while far right aims for greater visibilityFrance has begun voting in the first round of parliament elections key to Emmanuel Macron’s second term, determining his capacity to deliver domestic policy such as raising the retirement age and overhauling the benefits system.Macron, who was re-elected president in April against the far right’s Marine Le Pen, needs a majority for his centrist grouping in the lower house of parliament to have a free hand for his proposals to cut taxes and make changes to the welfare system. Continue reading...

After home secretary Priti Patel overcame a high court legal challenge, ‘vulnerable and at risk’ asylum seekers are among those who could be on the first flight to Rwanda this weekTorture victims who have been officially recognised by doctors as “vulnerable and at risk” are being told by the Home Office that they face being deported to Rwanda, the Observer can reveal.At least one asylum seeker who has been informed by the Home Office they may be on the first flight to the east African country, scheduled to depart this Tuesday, has been assessed as likely to have been a victim of torture. Continue reading...

Transport secretary also says workers could be banned from overtime, as rail industrial action loomsThe government is considering legal changes to allow agency workers to fill in for striking staff, to reduce disruption to services.It is understood the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has not ruled out the option, with travellers facing chaos on the railways and London tube due to widespread industrial action. Continue reading...

Marles brushes off suggestions former Coalition government was close to signing compensation deal with France; nation records at least 24 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Hotelier Rocco Forte demands PM changes course as Commons battle looms over tensions with EUA big Tory donor has said he cannot support Boris Johnson, after accusing him of overseeing an un-Conservative government, delivering a “pathetic” tax-cutting pledge and refusing to heed calls to change the course of his premiership.With the prime minister facing a split over Brexit within days and a mounting revolt among party backers after last week’s humiliating confidence vote, the hotelier Sir Rocco Forte said that he “will not put up” with the direction Johnson is taking the party. Continue reading...

Parents – more often mothers – are losing access to their children on the advice of unregulated therapists, an Observer investigation reveals

Analysis: The president could be forced to cohabit with his most fervent opponent, Jean-Luc MélenchonWeeks after Emmanuel Macron entered the Elysée for a second five-year term of office, French voters could decide to hamstring their newly re-elected leader by forcing him into a political “cohabitation” that would paralyse the country.The first round of legislative elections opens on Sunday to decide who will fill the 577 seats in the Assemblée Nationale. Continue reading...

Defence minister says the controversial interception of an Australian aircraft by a Chinese jet last month was discussed, as well as broader issues in the Pacific

Giorgia Meloni’s party hopes to gain ground as Italians go to polls to elect mayors and councillorsJust five years ago, Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist origins, barely scraped 4% of the vote. It now leads in opinion polls, and its leader Giorgia Meloni’s rabble-rousing speeches have filled squares up and down Italy before local elections beginning on Sunday.Italians will elect mayors and councillors in roughly 1,000 towns and cities, including Genoa, Palermo, Verona, Parma and a host of provincial capitals, in a vote that will test the strength of political parties before national elections next year. Continue reading...

Eight people became trapped on Mt Wellington’s summit, and another is missing, as blizzard-like weather causes ‘deadly’ conditions

Wei Fenghe says ties are at critical juncture and puts onus on United States to improve bilateral relationshipChina will “fight to the very end” to stop Taiwan from declaring independence, the country’s defence minister has vowed in a speech amid his counterparts from other countries including the United States.“We will fight at all cost and we will fight to the very end. This is the only choice for China,” Wei Fenghe told the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, where he called Taiwan “first and foremost China’s Taiwan”. Continue reading...

Experts say the world will be watching as the country becomes one of the first to experience Covid and a simultaneous influenza season spike

Authoritarian measures are widened to meet Chinese loyalty requirements, despite fears it will worsen teacher shortagesForeign English-language teachers working in Hong Kong government schools will need to swear allegiance to the city, officials have ordered, as fears grow about the territory’s ability to retain educators in the face of increasing restrictions.Hong Kong’s education bureau said on Saturday that native-speaking English teachers (NETs) and advisers working in government-run schools must sign a declaration by 21 June in order to continue working. Continue reading...

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‘Selfless’ Hywel Morgan, 47, recovered from sea at Poppit Sands after helping rescue group of children but could not be savedTributes have been paid to a father who died after rescuing a group of children caught in a rip tide.Hywel Morgan, 47, had helped save the children who had got into difficulty in the sea at Poppit Sands, St Dogmaels, Ceredigion. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Agency says decision to cut outsourced workload by 30% is due to reduced demand as unions warn of longer wait times

Experts say rulings in actions involving John Barilaro and PRGuy17 demonstrate existing law already achieves aims of former government’s proposed changes

Swings at federal election hint at shifts that could be replicated in state polls due in November and March

Labour ahead of Tories by two points, but Labour’s leader failing to make a personal breakthroughBoris Johnson makes a better prime minister than Keir Starmer would despite Partygate, the cost of living crisis and the confidence vote in Johnson held by his MPs, according to the latest Observer poll.The Opinium figures, which will raise further concerns within Labour over the party leader’s performance, shows that the prime minister has a two-point lead over his opponent. It also reveals that Starmer’s party holds a narrow two-point lead, compared with a three-point lead in the last poll a fortnight ago. Labour are on 36% of the vote, with the Tories up one point on 34%. The Lib Dems are on 13% with the Greens on 6%. Continue reading...

A US district judge in Las Vegas said the victim’s lawyer acted in ‘bad faith’ for use of leaked and stolen confidential documentsA Nevada woman has lost her bid in a US court to force the Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo to pay millions of dollars more than $375,000 in hush money she received after claiming he raped her in Las Vegas in 2009.A US district judge in Las Vegas, Jennifer Dorsey, kicked the case out of court on Friday to punish the woman’s attorney, Leslie Mark Stovall, for “bad-faith conduct” and the use of leaked and stolen documents detailing discussions between Ronaldo and his lawyers. Continue reading...