Exclusive: Cabinet secretary Chris Wormald is expected to follow Morgan McSweeney and Tim Allan out the doorThe most senior civil servant in Downing Street is negotiating his exit as part of a wider shake-up of Keir Starmer's operation after one of the most dramatic 48 hours of the prime minister's time in office, sources have told the Guardian.Chris Wormald, the cabinet secretary, is understood to be negotiating the terms of his departure from No 10, which would make him the third senior member of staff to leave in recent days. Continue reading...
by Patrick Butler Social policy editor on (#73EPX)
Peter Schofield tells staff he will leave the department for personal reasonsThe government's top welfare official is to step down after his department's handling of a longstanding benefits failure that plunged thousands into debt and became known as the carer's allowance scandal.Sir Peter Schofield, the permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions, announced to staff on Monday that he is to step down in July for personal reasons. Continue reading...
Release into Helman Tor reserve marks historical first for keystone species hunted to extinction in UK 400 years agoShivering and rain-drenched at the side of a pond in Cornwall, a huddle of people watched in hushed silence as a beaver took its first tentative steps into its new habitat. As it dived into the water with a determined plop" and began swimming laps, the suspense broke and everyone looked around, grinning.The soggy but momentous occasion marks the first time in English history that beavers have been legally released into a river system, almost one year after the government finally agreed to grant licences for releases. Continue reading...
by Caroline Davies and Kyriakos Petrakos on (#73E98)
Mountbatten-Windsor suspected of forwarding reports to child sex offender when he was government trade envoyKing Charles has expressed his profound concern" over allegations about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and will stand ready to support" the police if approached over the claims, Buckingham Palace has said.Thames Valley police confirmed on Monday they were assessing claims that Mountbatten-Windsor shared confidential reports from his role as a government trade envoy with the child sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2010. Continue reading...
by Nick Hopkins and Peter Walker in London on (#73EPZ)
While the herd is yet to move against Keir Starmer, many believe his tenure may be coming to an endWhen Boris Johnson resigned as the British prime minister in 2022, he explained that the politicians who had once loyally supported him had turned against him.This had sealed his fate. The herd instinct is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves," he said. Continue reading...
by Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent on (#73E6Y)
Prosecutor claims Juan Pablo Guanipa was re-arrested due to non-compliance with terms of releaseOne of Venezuela's most prominent opposition politicians, Juan Pablo Guanipa, has been detained by security forces just hours after being released from prison, as the South American country's leaders sent mixed signals about their commitment to political reform after Nicolas Maduro's downfall.Guanipa, who is a close ally of the Nobel laureate Maria Corina Machado, emerged from nearly nine months' detention on Sunday - one of at least 35 political prisoners to be freed over the course of the day. Continue reading...
by Presented by Lucy Houghwith Amy Hawkins; produced on (#73EMD)
The media mogul and prominent pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong for national security offences. His family has described the sentence as heartbreakingly cruel', given the 78-year-old's declining health. Lai was convicted in December on charges of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, after pleading not guilty to all charges. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian's senior China correspondent, Amy Hawkins - watch on YouTube Continue reading...
Tom Homan suggested that a widespread approach to immigration operations would lose public supportTom Homan - the Trump administration's border czar" sent to Minnesota in January after federal agents fatally shot two US citizen protesters - warned last year that the government's aggressive, widespread approach to immigration enforcement would cost it public support.Homan made the observation in an interview with NBC in June for the forthcoming book Undue Process, by the network's homeland security correspondent, analyzing the immigration policy of mass deportation that Donald Trump has pursued during his second presidency. Continue reading...
Detentions of senior Reformists Front figures follow criticism of the authorities' handling of recent protestsThe head of Iran's Reformists Front, the organisation instrumental in securing the election of the country's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has been arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in a move that is likely to exacerbate tensions over the handling of recent street protests.Azar Mansouri, the secretary general of the Islamic Iran People party, had expressed deep sorrow at protesters' deaths, and said nothing could justify such a catastrophe. She had not in public called for the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to resign. Continue reading...
Exclusive: angelaforleader.co.uk domain also registered - but MP's team dismiss unfinished site as fake' that was created without her knowledgeAn unfinished website claiming to launch Angela Rayner's Labour leadership campaign was published temporarily in January, prompting further speculation that the former deputy prime minister could be gearing up for a contest to replace Keir Starmer.The Guardian was alerted to the website, which appeared to be under construction, by a source in the IT industry - before the US Department of Justice's latest release of documents on Jeffrey Epstein threw the UK government into disarray. It was published, seemingly by accident, on a staging site", before being removed from the internet. Continue reading...
Faber-Castell says it was unaware its facility was being used to detain asylum seekers deported by the Trump administrationThe world's largest pencil maker has accused the Costa Rican government of misusing an old factory that the German manufacturer donated for humanitarian purposes - by detaining asylum seekers there who were deported from the US by the Trump administration last year.Faber-Castell produces more than 2bn wooden pencils a year worldwide and used to have a factory in the southern part of Costa Rica, bordering Panama and supplied by trees cultivated in the region. Continue reading...
Corteva will discontinue a mixture of Agent Orange and glyphosate, but another of its herbicides will still use Vietnam war-era defoliantThe chemical giant Corteva will stop producing Enlist Duo, a herbicide considered to be among the most dangerous still used in the US by environmentalists because it contains a mix of Agent Orange and glyphosate, which have both been linked to cancer and widespread ecological damage.The US military deployed Agent Orange, a chemical weapon, to destroy vegetation during the Vietnam war, causing serious health problems among soldiers and Vietnamese residents. Continue reading...
by Alice Fowl, Claire Jones and Morgan Thomas for Met on (#73E95)
Storm Marta sweeps Iberian peninsula just days after Storms Kristin and Leonardo brought deadly flooding and major damageSpain and Portugal have endured another storm over the weekend, just days after the deadly flooding and major damage caused by Storm Kristin and Storm Leonardo last week. Storm Marta passed over the Iberian peninsula on Saturday bringing fresh torrential rain, killing two people. Storm Kristin killed at least five people when it swept through Portugal last week with Storm Leonardo claiming another victim last Wednesday. The outlook for this week is for more rain across Spain, Portugal and France, especially across north-west Portugal, where more than 100mm is possible during the first half of the week. Some of the heaviest of the rain will transfer to southern Italy and western parts of Greece and Turkey later in the week.High rainfall totals are expected across parts of South Africa and Lesotho this week. By Saturday, provinces including Free State, KwaZulu Natal and Eastern Cape in South Africa could record fairly widespread rainfall totals of 80-100mm as a result of heavy showers or thunderstorms, with daily rainfall totals perhaps reaching 50mm where storms are particularly intense. Continue reading...
by Amy Hawkins Senior China correspondent on (#73E3E)
Family of media tycoon say he will die a martyr behind bars' amid widespread criticism from press freedom groupsJimmy Lai, the media mogul and prominent pro-democracy activist, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong for national security offences, a punishment his daughter said could mean he will die a martyr behind bars".Claire Lai said the sentence was heartbreakingly cruel" given her 78-year-old father's declining health, while her brother Sebastien Lai called the sentence draconian" and devastating". Continue reading...
Need for greater military autonomy also accepted, says report for Munich Security Conference, which takes place this weekEurope has come to the painful realisation that it needs to be more assertive and more militarily independent from an authoritarian US administration that no longer shares a commitment to liberal democratic norms and values, a report prepared by the Munich Security Conference asserts.The report sets the scene for an all-out ideological confrontation with the Trump White House at the high-level annual meeting of security policy specialists, which starts on Friday. Continue reading...
Antonio Jose Seguro scores resounding win despite Andre Ventura's populist Chega party securing 33.2% of votesThe moderate socialist Antonio Jose Seguro won a resounding victory in the second round of Portugal's presidential election on Sunday, triumphing over his far-right opponent, Andre Ventura, whose Chega party still managed to take a record share of the vote.Seguro won 66.8% of votes to Ventura's 33.2% in the election, which went ahead despite weeks of disruption caused by deadly storms. The vote to elect a successor to the outgoing president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was marked by a cross-party push to head off the prospect of a Chega victory, with some senior rightwing figures throwing their weight behind the centre-left candidate to keep Ventura from entering the presidential palace. Continue reading...
Palestine Action Group argued powers so broad anyone in Sydney CBD or eastern suburbs could be searched - even when Israeli president in Canberra or Melbourne
by Josh Halliday North of England editor on (#73E70)
Data shows deprived communities have more off-licences and takeaways and fewer childcare facilities and gymsEngland's poorest communities have 70% more vape shops, off-licences and bookmakers than wealthier ones and far fewer cafes and gyms, a study has found.The Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods (Icon), chaired by the Labour peer Hilary Armstrong, said ministers risked overlooking vitally important neighbourhood shopping precincts by focusing on town centres. In deprived areas, local shops have roughly double the number of retailers selling unhealthy food and significantly higher vacancy rates, its research has found. Continue reading...
Thinktank analysis says proposed earned settlement' changes could trap families in prolonged insecurityMore than 300,000 children already living in the UK could be forced to wait 10 years for settled status under proposed changes to the Home Office's earned settlement" policy, according to an analysis by a centre left thinktank.The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that nearly a quarter (23%) of the 1.35 million people already on routes to settlement are children, most of them dependants on their families' work visas. Continue reading...
Intelligence agency takes unusual step of publicly releasing statement and says it will reserve our right to take further action' if the ABC makes false claims
British papers explore what's next for prime minister Keir Starmer after the loss of his longtime adviser over the Mandelson-Epstein files scandalThe fate of prime minister Keir Starmer dominates the UK front pages on Monday after his embattled chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington.In standing down, McSweeney admitted the decision to advise sending Mandelson to the US despite his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was wrong". I advised the prime minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice," he said, after a Sunday phone call with Starmer. Continue reading...
Australian white supremacist tells NZ court he was suffering from nervous exhaustion' when he entered his guilty plea in March 2020The Australian white supremacist who murdered 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch in 2019, in the worst mass shooting in the New Zealand's history, has asked a court to discard his guilty pleas, claiming harsh prison conditions had affected his mental health and compelled him to admit to the crimes.Brenton Tarrant pleaded guilty in March 2020 to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and a terrorism charge, after initially saying he would defend the charges. In August 2020, Tarrant became the first person in New Zealand under current laws to be sentenced to life in prison without the chance of ever walking free. Continue reading...
Award-winning Tasmanian artist's work was published by The Australian, The Saturday Paper and The Hobart MercuryJon Kudelka, the Australian political cartoonist, has died at the age of 53.His wife, Margaret Kudelka, announced the news in a statement on Tuesday: We are sad to tell you that our beloved, brilliant Jon Kudelka died peacefully in South Hobart on Sunday afternoon, surrounded by his family and friends." Continue reading...
Exclusive: Labour peer, who came to UK as a refugee, says some ministers try to show they won't just do things because of their background'Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, whose parents migrated to the UK from Pakistan, is facing the suggestion from a veteran Labour peer that she is pulling up the drawbridge once inside" when considering the plight of refugee children trapped abroad.Alf Dubs, who came to the UK aged six in 1939 fleeing the persecution of Jews in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, said the home secretary and other ministers had kowtowed" to Nigel Farage's Reform UK by preventing unaccompanied children from seeking refuge with UK-based family members. Continue reading...
Moderate socialist defeats far-right populist Andre Ventura, with exit polls putting him comfortably above two-thirds of voteModerate socialist Antonio Jose Seguro secured a landslide victory and a five-year term as Portugal's president in a runoff vote on Sunday, beating his far-right, anti-establishment rival Andre Ventura, exit polls and partial results showed.A succession of storms in recent days failed to deter voters, with turnout at about the same level as in the first round on 18 January, even though three municipal councils in southern and central Portugal had to postpone voting by a week due to floods. Continue reading...
Carla Georgescu, 19, was found dead at her accommodation in Preston and police say her death is being treated as suspiciousA man has been arrested over the death of a student in her accommodation at the University of Lancashire.Carla Georgescu, 19, was found dead at her accommodation in Victoria Street, Preston, on Thursday afternoon, Lancashire constabulary said. Continue reading...
Those pushing to oust the prime minister are unlikely to be deterred by his right-hand man's departureFor some Labour MPs, the sight of Keir Starmer accepting the resignation of his long-term consigliere, Morgan McSweeney, encapsulated everything they think is going wrong with the prime minister's leadership.After days of mounting criticism over McSweeney's role in advocating for the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Washington ambassador, the prime minister's chief of staff left Downing Street on Sunday. Continue reading...
Met Office issues fresh yellow warning for rain as parts of England are still recovering from extensive floodingMore than 200 flood alerts were active across the UK on Sunday as parts of England and Wales braced for more downpours after the Met Office issued a fresh yellow warning for rain.The warning spans noon to midnight on Monday, covering parts of southern Wales as well as south-east and south-west England. The Met Office said that 10-15mm of rain is likely fairly widely with 20-30mm in some places exposed to the strong south to south-easterly winds". Continue reading...
by Justin McCurry in Tokyo and agencies on (#73DPJ)
Results mean coalition of recently installed PM has supermajority in lower house of parliamentJapan's conservative governing coalition has dramatically strengthened its grip on power after a landslide victory in Sunday's elections in what will be seen as an early public endorsement of the new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi.Her Liberal Democratic party (LDP) was projected to win as many as 328 of the 465 seats in parliament's lower house, well above the 233 it needed to regain the majority it lost in 2024. With her coalition partner, the Japan Innovation party, she now has a supermajority of two-thirds of seats, easing her legislative agenda as she can override the upper chamber, which she does not control. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Childnet, a UK charity part-funded by US tech firms, edited out warnings by two young speakers at its 2024 Safer Internet Day eventAn internet safety campaign backed by US tech companies has been accused of censoring two teenagers they invited to speak out about the biggest issues facing children online.Childnet, a UK charity part-funded by companies including Snap, Roblox and Meta, edited out warnings from Lewis Swire and Saamya Ghai that social media addiction was an imminent threat to our future" and obsessive scrolling was making people sick", according to a record of edits seen by the Guardian. Continue reading...
by Rebecca Ratcliffe in Bangkok and agencies on (#73DY8)
Staunch royalist Anutin Charnvirakul's Bhumjaithai party builds commanding lead on disappointing night for rivalsThe party of the Thai prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul, a staunch royalist and shrewd political dealmaker, is on track to win the most seats in Sunday's election after a disappointing night for his rivals in the youthful, pro-democracy People's party.We are likely to take first place in the election," the 59-year-old told reporters at the headquarters for his Bhumjaithai party in Bangkok. The victory today belongs to all Thais, no matter whether you voted for us or not," he said. Continue reading...
Women's and human rights activist, arrested at a demonstration in December, is said to be on hunger strikeIran has sentenced the Nobel peace prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to more than seven more years in prison after she began a hunger strike, her supporters said Sunday, as Tehran cracks down on all dissent following nationwide protests and the deaths of thousands at the hands of security forces.The new convictions against Mohammadi come as Iran tries to negotiate with the US over its nuclear programme to avert a military strike threatened by Donald Trump. Iran's top diplomat said on Sunday that Tehran's strength came from its ability to say no to the great powers", striking a maximalist position just after negotiations in Oman with the US. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#73DVA)
Labour will introduce legislation to cut threshold from 20 in effort to head off looming shortagesLabour will introduce legislation to lower the minimum age for train drivers to 18 in the House of Commons this week, as figures show fewer than 3% of drivers on Great Britain's railways are under 30.The government is pressing ahead with its proposals for teenage recruits, lowering the minimum age from 20, in a move that ministers hope will stave off a potential shortage of thousands of drivers. Continue reading...
Arrests follow discovery on Friday of magistrate and her mother in a garage in south-east of countryFrench authorities have arrested six suspects, including a child, after a magistrate and her mother were held captive last week for about 30 hours in a cryptocurrency ransom plot.Four men and one woman were detained, three overnight and two on Sunday morning, the Lyon prosecutor Thierry Dran told Agence France-Presse. He later confirmed a child had been arrested on Sunday afternoon. Continue reading...
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