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Ovaeed Rahman charged with animal cruelty offences after police, RSPCA and council officials visited Billericay propertyA man has been charged with a series of offences after the remains of 37 dogs were found at an address in Essex.Essex police said officers, colleagues from the RSPCA and Basildon council visited a property in the Crays Hill area of Billericay on Tuesday and the remains were discovered. Continue reading...

Failure to recruit NHS radiologists is creating vicious cycle whereby doctors are drawn to private work, says Royal College of RadiologistsThe NHS handed private firms a record 216m last year to examine X-rays and scans because hospitals have too few radiologists.The amount of money NHS organisations across the UK are paying companies to interpret scans has doubled in five years as demand rises for diagnostic tests. Continue reading...

Countries dispute ownership of Essequibo, oil-rich region where Venezuela claims it will hold elections this monthGuyanese soldiers have come under attack three times in 24 hours in an oil-rich border region also claimed by neighboring Venezuela, which says it will hold elections there this month.Armed men in civilian clothing carried out three separate attacks on troops conducting patrols on the Cuyuni River in the disputed Essequibo region, the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) said. Continue reading...

Liberal leader holds productive' talks with David Littleproud as cloud hangs over future of longstanding partnership

Queensland senator's subtle-yet-pointed displays of defiance offer a window into the style of politician the Greens have chosen as their new leader

Famous reptile had a memorable scene in the 1996 comedy with Adam Sandler, along with other movies and TV showsMorris, a famous alligator known for his appearances in movies and TV shows, most notably the 1996 comedy Happy Gilmore, has died at around 80 years old at the Colorado Gator Farm.Adam Sandler, star of Happy Gilmore, posted a tribute to Morris in an X post on Wednesday, recalling the reptile's diva-like behavior on set. Continue reading...

In Cannes to promote his Stalinist drama Two Prosecutors, the film-maker said he feared the US and Russia would soon become equal'One of Ukraine's leading film-makers has spoken of the nightmare" of an emergent alliance between authoritarian leaders in Russia and the US, as his new film on contemporary echoes with the Stalinist era opens at the Cannes film festival.The events that unfolded in the past 100 days really surprised many people all over the world," said director Sergei Loznitsa, whose new film Two Prosecutors received its world premiere on Wednesday. One couldn't even imagine in a nightmare such a union, such an understanding between two authoritarian leaders." Continue reading...

Fema-run program withholds funds it owes service providers and claims they may have aided illegal activities'The Trump administration is accusing some state authorities and non-profits of in effect smuggling or harboring migrants after they provided food and shelter for such people - even though the services were funded through federal government programs and those being helped had already been processed and released by immigration officials.The administration has also withheld funds it owes to service providers, which spent up front to support vulnerable families recently arrived in the US, on the good faith agreement that, as is usual practice, they would be paid back by Washington. Continue reading...

Putin and Zelenskyy will not meet after the Russian president refused to travel to Istanbul for talks with his Ukrainian counterpart. Plus, the fitness influencers who fake their impossibly ripped physiquesGood morning.The first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in three years are expected to take place today in Turkey - but Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not meet, after the Russian leader declined to join the Ukrainian leader in Istanbul.Will Zelenskyy go to Istanbul? He has indicated he will not travel unless Putin also agrees to attend.What is the administration asking for? It wants the scope of judges' injunctions to be reduced so they only apply to the people, organizations or states that sued. Continue reading...

Commons committee recommends independent scrutiny of failures and legal duty to safeguard those at most riskA cross-party committee of MPs has called for greater protections for vulnerable benefit claimants after hundreds of cases of deaths and serious harms linked to safeguarding failures by welfare officials.The work and pensions select committee said many of these cases, which include instances where claimants took their own lives, could have been prevented had the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) discharged its responsibilities effectively. Continue reading...

Under David Keeling, a former UPS and Amazon executive, Osha is expected to thwart protections on extreme heatAs the US prepares for what could be another record-breaking hot summer, Donald Trump and his pick to lead the nation's workplace safety agency are expected to derail the creation of the nation's first-ever federal labor protections from extreme heat.Trump in February nominated David Keeling to lead the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha). Keeling formerly served as an executive at the United Parcel Service (UPS) and Amazon - both of which have faced citations from Osha for worker injuries and deaths amid heat exposure. The companies deny the deaths were heat-related. Continue reading...

Hundreds of dams, weirs, culverts and sluices dismantled in 2024 to help waterways resume natural courseEurope dismantled 542 river-blocking dams, weirs, culverts and sluices in 2024, a report has found, helping a record number of waterways resume their natural course.The number of removals grew 11% from the year before, according to an annual report from Dam Removal Europe. Continue reading...

Tensions mount as EU diplomats seek common ground for wide-ranging reset in relations with Britain

Victorian supreme court judge says he received information the juror had been discussing Patterson's case with family and friends

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Justice Dina Yehia says manner force conducted its defence is a matter, I'll be quite honest with you, of grave concern to me'

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Dr C wrote to the police in 2021 that Cauchi did not pose an imminent risk to himself or others at this stage', Sydney inquest hears

Queensland senator chosen after minor party's 11 senators and lone MP meet in Melbourne

Health secretary instigates carrot and stick' policy for England that will award bonuses for cutting waiting timesBosses of hospitals with long waiting times or that overspend their budget will be denied pay rises in a tough new drive by Wes Streeting to improve the NHS's performance.Senior executives in England's 215 NHS trusts and 42 integrated care boards will also receive bonuses for cutting waiting lists under plans the health secretary has unveiled. Continue reading...

Document issued by Edward I in 1300 was bought by law school library for just $27 in 1946A Magna Carta wrongly listed as an unofficial copy for nearly 80 years has been confirmed as an original from 1300.The discovery means the document is just one of seven issued in 1300 by Edward I that still survive. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer has defended the language he used in a speech on immigration this week. But many Labour MPs have criticised his choice of words, with some even claiming the prime minister's language echoed that of Enoch Powell. John Harris speaks to the Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy about why she and others are so concerned.Plus, who is writing the script, literally and figuratively? The Guardian's Gaby Hinsliff and Kiran Stacey discuss Continue reading...

The socialist icon wants to defy the Bolivian constitution by running for a fourth term. But is he trying to save the country or himself? Tiago Rogero reportsDeep in the jungle region of Chapare, Bolivia's coca country, the former president and socialist icon Evo Morales is holed up in a compound surrounded by supporters armed with sticks and homemade shields.It was like I was in a movie set, but like a low-budget movie set of a Bolivian Game of Thrones. It was very surreal," says Tiago Rogero. Continue reading...

Te Pti Mori co-leaders and youngest member to be temporarily suspended from parliament after performance protesting controversial billThree New Zealand MPs who performed a haka in parliament will be temporarily suspended, in what is believed to be the harshest ever penalty issued to parliamentarians.The co-leaders of Te Pti Mori (the Mori Party) Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, and the party's youngest member, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, performed the traditional Mori dance during a vote on the controversial Treaty Principles Bill during its first reading in November. Continue reading...

Cap of 15% could allow US firm RedBird Capital to finalise deal to buy titles after two years of uncertaintyThe government will allow foreign states to own stakes of up to 15% in British newspapers in a move that could finally end two years of uncertainty over the ownership of the Telegraph titles.The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is to announce the limit on Thursday through the introduction of a new statutory instrument in parliament, ending a months-long consultation involving intensive lobbying by newspaper owners. Continue reading...

People who have moved to UK since 2020 may face extra five-year wait to stay indefinitely under Labour crackdownAbout 1.5 million foreign workers who have moved to Britain since 2020 may have to wait a further five years to apply for permanent settlement.Under changes set out in the immigration white paper, automatic settlement and citizenship rights will be granted after 10 years instead of five. But the paper did not specify whether this would apply to recent arrivals already in the UK and in the process of their application. Continue reading...

Investigators said Bayesian, which sank in Italy killing 15 people, was destabilised by windThe late tech tycoon Mike Lynch's superyacht, Bayesian, sank after it was hit by winds of around 117km/h that drove the vessel past its point of stability and caused downflooding over the starboard rail, according to a preliminary safety report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB).The investigators said Bayesian may have been vulnerable to high winds when running on its engine and that these vulnerabilities" were unknown to either the owner or the crew" as they were not included in the stability information book carried on board. Continue reading...

Lt Cdr Martyn Mayger, who took charge of HMS Tyne in February, under investigation over sexual allegationsA Royal Navy commander has been removed from his role less than three months into post while he is investigated over sexual allegations.Lt Cdr Martyn Mayger took charge of HMS Tyne, a warship that operates in UK and European waters on security tasks, in February. Continue reading...

US president meets Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia as lifting of sanctions is met with jubilation in Damascus

Music mogul's former girlfriend describes physical abuse, control and violence at trial in New York City

Self-styled Nazi cell had amassed 200 weapons and discussed attacks on mosques and synagoguesThree Nazi extremists who amassed an arsenal of 200 weapons and discussed targeting mosques and synagogues in England have been convicted of planning a terrorist attack.Among the haul of weapons was a 3D gun that was almost ready to be fired. The planned attack was averted when an undercover officer infiltrated the self-styled Nazi cell. Continue reading...

UK justice secretary also announces plans for three new jails amid overcrowding crisis in England and WalesShabana Mahmood will limit for how long hundreds of repeat offenders can be recalled to prison amid Whitehall predictions that jails will be full again in November.The justice secretary also announced a 4.7bn plan to build three new prisons starting this year, part of a record expansion" as the government attempts to get to grips with the criminal justice system. Continue reading...

Justification for Israel's blockade is hard to sustain amid photos of malnourished children and critical famine warningsFor many decades, Israel was proud of its officials' ability to defend and argue and convince around the world. The war in Gaza has seen the country's public diplomacy face its greatest test - as was made clear on Wednesday morning with a robust exchange between David Mencer, a spokesperson for the Israeli government, and Nick Robinson, a presenter of the BBC's flagship Today programme.Mencer stressed that he was speaking on behalf of the prime minister and made an uncompromising statement of Israel's arguments, including the accusation that Hamas - described as a genocidal death cult" - uses civilians as human shields. Continue reading...

Research raises questions about long-term treatment of and support for people using weight loss drugsPeople on weight loss drugs regain all the weight they have lost within a year of stopping the medication, analysis has shown.Analysis of 11 studies of older and newer GLP-1 weight loss drugs by the University of Oxford found that patients typically lost 8kg on weight loss jabs but returned to their original weight within 10 months of stopping them. Continue reading...

UK judge rejects Robert Albon's application for parental right of three-year-old girl he had with woman in DurhamAn unregistered sperm donor who says he has fathered more than 180 children has failed to gain custody of a three-year-old child he had with a Durham woman, who said she was left broken" and suicidal" by their encounter.Robert Albon, who goes by the pseudonym Joe Donor" and has appeared on This Morning and in a Channel 4 documentary, applied to have the girl live with him after a court deemed her mother was unable to look after her. Continue reading...

Driver allegedly stole luggage and cash from foreign secretary and Nicola Green after ride from Italy to French ski resortA taxi driver has been charged by French police with stealing luggage and cash from the UK's foreign secretary, David Lammy, and his wife, Nicola Green.

Trump's foray into cryptocurrency involves him leveraging his presidency for personal gain and operating in an industry he has power overThe 220 winners of a cryptocurrency contest were told on Monday to look out for an email featuring the most exclusive invitation in the world". As a reward for spending immense amounts of money, in some cases millions of dollars, they had won the prize of attending a private gala with Donald Trump at his own Washington DC golf club later this month.Awarding access to the president in exchange for investment in his crypto endeavor was Trump's latest conflict of interest in a political career filled with, in the words of one of his most repeated catchphrases, many such cases". Real estate holdings, a media company, merchandising deals, fraud and most recently Qatar's gift of a $400m plane are only some of the myriad of entanglements that government ethics watchdogs have warned about for a decade now. Continue reading...

Justice secretary says male prisons currently operating at 99% capacityHere is the list of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs, which starts at noon.In March Reform UK reported Rupert Lowe (at the time one of their five MPs) to the police, claiming he had threatened the party chair, Zia Yusuf, with violence. Reform UK announced the news shortly after Lowe gave a newspaper interview criticising Nigel Farage, the party leader,Following a thorough and detailed review of the evidence in relation to an allegation of threats, we have decided that no criminal charges should be brought against a sitting MP.Having considered a number of witness statements, we have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.If Farage were ever to control the vast power of the British state, I believe he would not hesitate to do to his adversaries what they have tried to do to me. With real power, I fear he would wield that immense responsibility to crush dissent - as he has done time and again over the years ...Please listen when I say this: For the good of our country, Nigel Farage must never be prime minister. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story hereI worry a lot about a kind of world war one-type scenario," former White House Russia adviser Fiona Hill told Lucy Hough, in which the prevailing system is broken down, and you get a whole outbreak of conflicts that meld together."People are always asking: What should we be worried about in the future?' We should be worried about the here and now.He wanted a very close relationship with Putin, kept talking about him as his friend, talking about phone calls he had when he hadn't had phone calls. He's done this with China as well.It's almost as if he's saying: Please call me.' He's laid out every way in which he can be manipulated, and that's what Putin has done. Putin is an expert in manipulation. Continue reading...

Airport has seen multiple serious failures in past weeks while Sean Duffy has assured the public it's safe to fly from thereSean Duffy, the Trump administration's transportation secretary, has revealed that he switched flights for his wife this week to help her avoid flying out of beleaguered Newark Liberty, one of the busiest airports in the New York area.Duffy's disclosure on Monday followed his repeated assurances to the American public that it is safe to fly from Newark, despite a spate of dramatic outages affecting the airport's radar systems that is causing ongoing disruption and delays. On Sunday, the transportation secretary went on NBC News's Meet the Press and insisted Newark was safe. Continue reading...

Auditors question if Peter Mandelson-linked firm can raise adequate funding after news of regulator's investigationThe Bank of London, the fledgling clearing bank formerly backed by Peter Mandelson, has revealed it is under investigation by UK regulators, with auditors saying the fallout could throw significant doubt" over its ability to keep operating.The news is a fresh blow for the troubled fintech, which has lost its founder and leading board members, including Lord Mandelson and US private equity boss Harvey Schwartz, and halved its workforce since being thrust into the spotlight in September over an embarrassing winding-up petition by the UK tax authority over unpaid debts. Continue reading...

BBC host says he would never knowingly share anything antisemitic' and deleted post on learning it was offensiveGary Lineker has issued an unreserved apology for amplifying online material with antisemitic connotations, after reposting a video that criticised Zionism and included an illustration of a rat.The outgoing Match of the Day presenter said he would never knowingly share anything antisemitic", adding he had deleted the Instagram post as soon as I became aware of the issue". The image of the rat was historically an antisemitic insult and used in Nazi Germany to characterise Jews. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Six-week deliberation asked for by Commons committee expected to be granted after internal backlashThe UK's equality watchdog is expected to give in to demands that it allow more time to consider its formal guidance on the supreme court ruling about gender issues, after what sources say has been a big backlash from staff and stakeholders.Some insiders believe the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) may be forced into a U-turn on its initial response, which was criticised as overly literal in defining how organisations should respond to the court decision that woman" in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman. Continue reading...

Prosecutors say men intended to attack German cargo transport by sending packages that would explode in transit

Dead include those killed in a strike on the European hospital complex near Khan Younis

MP accuses ex-colleagues of attempt to silence him as CPS says it will not charge him over allegations of verbal threatsThe former Reform MP Rupert Lowe has accused his ex-colleagues of a sinister" attempt to use the police to silence him, as he launched a furious attack on Nigel Farage who he said must never be prime minister".Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth who now sits as an independent, made the remarks after the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed it would not bring criminal charges over allegations that Lowe made verbal threats in parliament last December. Continue reading...

European court of justice says no plausible explanation' given for denying New York Times access to texts from pandemicThe EU's highest court has cancelled a decision to withhold Ursula von der Leyen's text messages with a pharmaceutical executive during the pandemic, in a significant defeat for the commission president.The European court of justice on Wednesday annulled a decision taken by the European Commission in November 2022 to deny the New York Times access to the messages, after a freedom of information request by the paper. Continue reading...

Bombardment signals new escalation after Netanyahu said Israel would go in with full force to complete the operation'

Offenders in England and Wales to have sentences cut for good behaviour and completion of work, training or education tasksPrisoners will be able to earn their freedom after serving a third of their sentences under new minimum and maximum sentence plans released by the government to tackle the overcrowding in jails.Offenders in England and Wales will be able to earn early release if they complete work, training or education assignments and demonstrate good behaviour before being freed. Continue reading...

Group in recovery phase' and working closely with suppliers after customers complain of empty shelvesThe Co-op has said that stock availability in its stores will not improve until this weekend, as it struggles to recover from a cyber-attack two weeks ago.The grocery to funerals mutual said it was in the recovery phase" and working closely with our suppliers to restock our stores" after bringing its stock ordering system back online. The system was closed down as part of efforts to fend off the cyber-attack. Continue reading...