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Plan, which also includes levies on tobacco and electronic waste, ignites major political scrap to define bloc's futureThe European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has called for new EU taxes on large companies, tobacco and electronic waste as part of a proposed 2tn (1.7tn) budget.Announcing the planned EU budget for 2028 to 2034, she effectively fired the starting gun on a major and complex political fight to define the EU's future. Continue reading...

Most airports charge up to 7 for a brief stop and 11 of the 20 biggest have raised their fees, RAC analysis showsCar drivers have been warned of soaring charges at UK airports to drop off passengers this summer, while major European airports continue to allow motorists brief stops without charge.With most UK airports raising charges to up to 7 to briefly park near terminals, the cost of some drop-offs is now more expensive per minute than peak-season holiday flights. Continue reading...

Victoria police also allege 20-year-old blocked detectives from accessing apps on his phone

Nido Early School confirmed it terminated Brown from its Werribee childcare service during his probation period but not because of any behaviour towards children

Tech giant says posts from Australian Facebook and Instagram users are vital learning' about concepts, realities, and figures'

When Labour came to power it moved fast to end the public sector strikes. But now resident doctors are demanding a 29% rise in pay. Will they get it and will it put Labour's plans for the NHS at risk? Denis Campbell reportsWhen Labour came into power they agreed to give resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, a 22% rise over two years to end their strikes. They then turned their attention to updating the NHS, unveiling an ambitious 10-year plan to change the way the system is run. But now doctors have gone back to the ballot box.The Guardian's health policy editor, Denis Campbell, tells Helen Pidd that the British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors' union, says the value of their salaries has dropped 29% since 2008 thanks to inflation and serial low pay rises. They want this restored. But with public finances more stretched than ever, Wes Streeting is unlikely to accede. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Health minister's diaries show no formal events in the Snowy Mountains town, but trips for private purposes were allowed under the rules at the time

Children can buy pouches legally as they are not regulated as a specific tobacco or nicotine productNicotine pouches are being legally sold to children and are being made appealing to them with special flavours and packaging mimicking sweets, a trading standards body has said.In June, it became illegal for single-use vapes to be sold in England to tackle their widespread use by children. However, there is currently no legislation that restricts the age at which you can buy nicotine pouches. Continue reading...

Resolution Foundation says unpaid carers on low incomes pay very heavy price' for looking after loved onesThe carer's allowance benefit should be overhauled and the basic rate of payment increased to lift more unpaid carers and disabled people out of financial hardship, according to a living standards thinktank.The Resolution Foundation said unpaid carers on low incomes were paying a very heavy price" - a typical penalty of 10% or as much as 7,000 a year compared with non-carers - for looking after loved ones full-time. Continue reading...

Exclusive: changes will end illegitimate funding via shell firms and subject donors to enhanced tests, backed by stronger finesMinisters are planning to close loopholes that could allow foreign money to influence UK elections, with a crackdown on illegitimate donations through shell companies and new tests on political donors.As part of a push to tighten up electoral law, the government will on Thursday announce a series of measures to ensure donations come from allowable UK sources. Continue reading...

New bilateral deal includes deeper industrial and security cooperation after Brexit and amid global instabilityKeir Starmer will welcome Germany's chancellor, Friedrich Merz, to Downing Street on Thursday to sign a new bilateral treaty that promises tighter action on smuggling gangs, expanded defence exports and closer industrial ties between the UK and Germany.The bilateral friendship and cooperation treaty marks the latest phase of Starmer's bid to rebuild Britain's influence in Europe - without reopening formal ties with the EU. Continue reading...

Agreement between government and voluntary sector aims to reset relations after erosion of trust under ToriesThe right to engage in political activity and protest peacefully is to be enshrined in a new agreement between the government and UK charities and campaigners aimed in part at ending years of damaging culture wars".The agreement is intended to reset relations between government and the voluntary sector after years of mutual distrust during which Conservative ministers limited public rights to protest, froze out campaigners, and targeted woke" charities. Continue reading...

Inside the hangars where robots are poised to keep the UK a top-tier military nation and continue more than a century of building military aircraftIn a factory on the banks of the River Ribble in Lancashire, robot arms stand on a floor striped with glowing lights. They will hold the tail fin for a test model for the UK's next generation fighter jet, which is intended to fly for the first time in 2027. The jet, known as Tempest, will act as a symbol of Britain's hopes to remain a top-tier military nation and keep alive more than a century of building military aircraft.Yet things are markedly different in another hangar at the Warton site, run by British arms manufacturer BAE Systems. There, production of the Typhoon jet, a mainstay of the Royal Air Force (RAF) for two decades, has - for now at least - ground to a halt. Continue reading...

Police initially thought the girl was attacked by an animal due her injuries, but later arrested a 17-year-old boyA small rural community in Canada is reeling after police said the horrific attack of an eight-year-old girl was not caused by an animal, as they had suspected, but allegedly by a teenage boy who they have now charged with attempted murder.The residents of Quadeville, a town of a few hundred people in southern Ontario, are questioning local law enforcement's handling of the case after officials initially told them to keep their children indoors to protect them against a possible offending animal. Continue reading...

Paul Chowles, 42, stole the proceeds of an online illegal drugs market and laundered the money on the dark webA National Crime Agency (NCA) officer has been jailed for stealing 4.4m worth of bitcoin seized during a joint operation with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), after the criminal he was investigating told the police it was missing.Paul Chowles thought he had got away with the crime for five years, prosecutors said, after laundering the money on the dark web and spending 613,000, mostly on day-to-day expenses. Continue reading...

Ruling against Northumbria police could affect other forces' involvement with Remembrance parades and religious events, sources fearPolice chiefs have been left stunned after the high court ruled officers were wrong to wear their uniforms to take part in last year's Pride festival in Newcastle.The judgment found that the chief constable of Northumbria acted irrationally" and breached a duty of impartiality by officially supporting the event, which was alleged to have supported views that people could change their gender. Continue reading...

Trade commission fined Facebook for violating 2012 data-protection agreement after Cambridge Analytica scandalAn $8bn trial brought by Meta Platforms shareholders against Mark Zuckerberg and other current and former company leaders kicked off on Wednesday over claims they illegally harvested the data of Facebook users in violation of a 2012 agreement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).The trial started with a privacy expert for the plaintiffs, Neil Richards of Washington University School of Law, who testified about Facebook's data policies. Continue reading...

US rock band claim reunion tour and new album derailed by Farrell's repeated and unprovoked attack' in 2024Members of Jane's Addiction have sued the alt-rock band's lead singer, Perry Farrell, after an on-stage altercation last fall that they claim derailed their North American tour and forthcoming album. Dave Navarro, Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins are seeking $10m from the 66-year-old singer.Guitarist Navarro is also suing Farrell for assault and battery for the onstage altercation at a Boston gig in September last year. Footage from the concert showed Farrell punching and shoving Navarro before he was restrained by crew members. He was then escorted off the stage. Continue reading...

NHS Fife says there is insufficient evidence against Sandie Peggie as her tribunal case against the trust resumesA nurse who objected to sharing a female changing room with a transgender woman doctor has been cleared of gross misconduct allegations.Sandie Peggie, who has worked as a nurse for the health board for more than 30 years, is claiming she was subject to unlawful harassment under the Equality Act when she was expected to share a changing room with a trans woman, Dr Beth Upton. Continue reading...

Rachael Maskell, Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff pushed out and three trade envoys lose rolesKeir Starmer has fired a warning shot to rebellious Labour MPs and moved to reassert his grip on his party by removing the whip from four backbenchers for repeatedly breaching discipline.Labour MPs Rachael Maskell, Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff were told they had lost the party whip on Wednesday afternoon for repeatedly rebelling against the government. Continue reading...

CEO says company plans to spend hundreds of billions on developing artificial intelligence productsMark Zuckerberg proclaimed that Meta would spend hundreds of billions of dollars on developing artificial intelligence products in the near future and, to that end, construct a data center planned to be nearly the size of Manhattan.The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is among the large tech companies that have struck high-profile deals, and doled out multimillion-dollar pay packages to AI researchers in recent months - some as high as $100m - to fast-track work on machines that could outthink humans on many tasks, a concept known as super-intelligence" or artificial general intelligence". Continue reading...

An earlier ceasefire announced on Tuesday night collapsed after only a few hours.Syria state media said that the Israeli military struck the Druze-majority city of Sweida, where Syrian government forces have deployed despite Israeli warnings, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.Israeli occupation drones target the city of Sweida," state-run SANA said. Continue reading...

David Lammy said he hopes to appoint special envoy for British nationals detained overseasFamilies and lawyers of prominent British prisoners detained abroad have called for the government to deliver on promises to help secure their release and appoint a special envoy.Last week, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, said he hoped to appoint a special envoy for British nationals arbitrarily detained overseas by the end of the year, after vowing to do so in November 2024 and as part of a Labour manifesto pledge. Continue reading...

Chancellor's plan to slash red tape could raise financial risks and do little to help households, say architects of UK's post-2008 reformsRachel Reeves has been warned by City grandees that her plan to slash financial red tape could have little benefit for British households while increasing risks in the banking industry.The chancellor used a speech to City bosses attending the annual Mansion House dinner on Tuesday to argue that in too many areas regulation was acting as a boot on the neck of business", as she pledged sweeping changes to help revive the economy. Continue reading...

Anderson report recommends potential large expansion of Prevent to include individuals with no fixed ideologyThe Prevent anti-terrorism scheme missed chances to protect the public from the attacker who assassinated the MP Sir David Amess, and from the youth who murdered three young girls at a Southport dance class, an official report has found.The report is by David Anderson, the interim independent reviewer of Prevent, the official scheme to spot potential terrorists and turn them away from violence. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story hereIn an interview with LBC Ben Wallace, the former Tory defence secretary, hit back at his former ministerial colleague Johnny Mercer rather more forcefully than he did on the Today programme (see 8.09am) over Mercer's comments about the Afghan resettlement programme.Tom Swarbrick, the presenter, quoted what Mercer said about how this whole farcical process has been the most hapless display of ineptitude by successive ministers and officials that I saw in my time in government".No, I don't agree with it. I think my record would show the opposite. It was me and Priti Patel, before the collapse of Kabul, who decided we were going to accelerate bringing people back who were under threat ...People hadn't come out before. And we made sure that we did this. I think what Johnny, you know, fails to grasp, is quite the massive scale of collapse that happened very quickly in Afghanistan, leaving people at risk, and we had to do our very best. Continue reading...

Ukraine urges EU to adopt further sanctions against Russia and says Kremlin is waging campaign of terror from the airSeparately, the European Commission has just confirmed that EU trade commissioner Maro efovi will travel to Washington DC today for talks with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and US trade representative Jamieson Greer.The meetings come as part of the EU's push to get an agreement with the US on tariffs before 1 August. Continue reading...

Iceland's weather agency advises residents to stay indoors because of high levels of toxic gas from 1.5-mile fissureA volcano erupted on Wednesday on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula in the south-west of the country, the ninth eruption in region since the end of 2023.The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said the eruption had begun just before 4am local time (05:00 BST), and live video feeds showed lava spewing from a fissure in the ground. Continue reading...

Outer-suburban and regional Australians increasingly likely to give birth to more children per person than inner-city residents, report shows

Giridharan Sivaraman says he hopes to meet Jillian Segal to discuss her proposals and their implications for fundamental rights and freedoms

PM says Tory former ministers must explain how error that put Afghans at risk was allowed to happen

The Base, a far-right group with suspected links to Russia, said killing of Ivan Voronych was only the beginning'The Ukrainian wing of an internationally proscribed far-right terrorist organization with suspected links to Russia is claiming involvement in the brazen assassination of an intelligence officer in Kyiv.Late last week, a masked assailant shot and killed Col Ivan Voronych of the Ukraine security service (SBU) as he walked through a Kyiv parking lot in broad daylight. Shocking footage of the assassination circulated in Ukrainian media and caused a stir among residents in the capital. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Analysis shows covering part of salaries from first day off can boost productivity and employee retention

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Rewrite of environmental protection act could help meet climate and housing targets, Ken Henry to tell national press club

Optus says cheque refunds are not standard practice but are implemented where electronic banking is unavailable'

Search for missing man comes after series of attacks across Japan this month in which at least two people have diedAuthorities in Japan are searching for a hunter who went missing on a mountain in Hokkaido near where a brown bear was recently spotted, amid a spate of deadly attacks by the animals that has triggered the declaration of a bear emergency in one town.The hunter was reported missing by a friend on Mt Esan on Tuesday afternoon in the northern island of Hokkaido after he failed to return home. A rifle believed to belong to the missing man was found on the side of a mountain road, and bloodstains were discovered nearby. A large brown bear was seen near the road on Saturday. Continue reading...

Leading figures say skilled freelancers feel massive fear' about speaking out and are leaving industryToxic behaviour in British television is jeopardising one of the UK's most important cultural and economic assets, industry experts have warned.In the wake of a damaging report from the BBC on Monday that upheld 45 complaints about the former MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace, leading figures in television said a workforce populated by financially insecure freelance workers remained too scared to speak out about harmful behaviour. Continue reading...

Jason Clare says allegations against Joshua Dale Brown, who worked across more than 20 childcare centres, shows new system is needed

Two southern states cling to past ruling that children are needed for harvest and claim the latest, most favoured slotGermany's 16 states are locked in a fierce row over when they are able to take their summer school holidays, with the southernmost two accused of permanently hogging the best slots on the grounds that their children are required to help bring in the harvest.Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg are resisting calls from the other 14 federal states to join the long-held national rotation system of school summer holidays that the other states take part in. Continue reading...

Report comes as government faces growing demands for wealth tax to improve health of public finances after welfare U-turn earlier this monthHM Revenue and Customs has been sharply criticised by parliament's spending watchdog for being unable to track how many billionaires pay tax in the UK.In a highly critical report on the collection of tax from wealthy individuals, the influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said HMRC could not say how much the super-rich either contributed to the exchequer or avoided. Continue reading...

Traders affiliated to Iran-backed rebel group found to have been running weapon stores on social media for yearsArms dealers affiliated with Houthi militants in Yemen are using X and Meta platforms to traffic weapons - some US-made - in apparent violation of the social media firms' policies, a report has revealed.The Houthis, an Iran-backed group of rebels who have controlled swathes of Yemen since 2014, are designated as a terrorist organisation by the US, Canada and other countries. Continue reading...

Jason Clare says racism exists in all its ugly forms' at universities and the government will consider two other key reports before responding

Adams' comments about Israel have provoked particular concern in Malaysia, a staunch supporter of PalestineFormer government ministers and youth politicians in Muslim-majority Malaysia have slammed a decision to nominate right-wing influencer Nick Adams as US ambassador to the country, calling it an insult to the nation.Donald Trump announced last week that Nick Adams, a self-proclaimed alpha male", had been announced as ambassador to Malaysia, praising him as a incredible patriot". Continue reading...

Investigation finds wind conditions at 14 July 2023 event exceeded the drones' capacity shortly after launch, triggering collisions and errors

Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, reduced military in the city, which had erupted in protest over Ice raidsThe Trump administration said it would scale down its military operation in Los Angeles with the removal of half of the national guard troops that were deployed to the area last month amid protests over the federal government's mass immigration sweeps.Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, ordered the release of 2,000 national guard troops, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday, significantly reducing the military presence in the city. Continue reading...

Government review says PAs sometimes used to fill roles designed for doctors, potentially exposing patients to riskNHS physician associates should be banned from diagnosing patients who have not already been seen by a doctor, a government review has concluded.The review calls for the government to overhaul the role of physician associates (PAs), who it says have been substituted in for doctors to fill staffing gaps despite having significantly less training. Continue reading...

Report led by former Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson warns of sometimes catastrophic' treatment of passengersAirline and airport staff should have mandatory training in disability and accessibility awareness, a government taskforce has urged, to ease the stress, confusion and harm experienced by the growing numbers of passengers requiring assistance to travel.A report from the group, led by the crossbench peer and former Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, said the experience of flying for disabled people can be ad hoc, inconsistent and sometimes catastrophic". Continue reading...

Despite popularity of weight loss jabs, more Britons are going abroad for surgery, analysis suggestsA booming trade in medical tourism for weight loss surgery is placing patients at risk and needs urgent regulation, experts have warned.Despite the growing popularity of injections such as Mounjaro to treat obesity, the number of patients travelling to other countries for surgery is increasing, the latest analysis suggests. Continue reading...