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French government braces for legal challenges to new tactics, involving extra police, boats and dronesBritish taxpayers will be expected to contribute more money to stop irregular migration as the French government prepares to halt small boats carrying asylum seekers even if they are already at sea.It is understood there will be extra costs associated with the scheme to tackle boats within 300 metres of the shore - including paying for police, boats and drones - which the UK will be asked to share with France. Continue reading...

Labour dismisses Kemi Badenoch speech on European convention on human rights as an attempt to appease Reform UK and Robert Jenrick. This live blog is closedAs Jessica Elgot and Amelia Gentleman report, Downing Street is exploring new proposals for a digital ID card to crack down on illegal migration, rogue landlords and exploitative work, set out in a policy paper authored by a centre-left thinktank.Steve Reed, the environment secretary, was the government voice on the media this morning and he confirmed that the government is interested in this idea. He told Times Radio:It's absolutely something that we are looking at, and that we should be looking at.We know we need to look at all the actions we can take to stop the levels of illegal migration that we were seeing particularly under the last government. Continue reading...

TV chef says he is disgusted' council don't want to spend the money' on those diagnosed with neurological learning difficultyThe celebrity chef and campaigner Jamie Oliver said he is disgusted" by his native county of Essex for not formally recognising dyslexia as a special educational need.Discussing his new documentary on dyslexia, Oliver claimed that Essex county council did not want to spend the money" on those diagnosed with dyslexia, a neurological learning difficulty affecting reading and writing. Continue reading...

Three emergency workers killed and 20 people wounded as missiles and drones strike Ukrainian capital

PM says it saves lives of Israeli soldiers', after accusations government is giving weapons to criminals and felons'The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has admitted arming clans in Gaza that he says are opposed to Hamas, after allegations that members of these criminal gangs looted humanitarian aid and have ties to jihadist groups.The admission came after Israeli media reports quoted defence sources as saying Netanyahu had authorised giving weapons to a clan reportedly led by a man known as Yasser Abu Shabab, a Rafah resident from a Bedouin family, known locally for his involvement in criminal activity. Israel allegedly provided Abu Shabab's group, which calls itself the Anti-Terror Service", with Kalashnikov assault rifles, including weapons seized from Hamas. Continue reading...

Exclusive: London woman complains to watchdog after she was added to database over Home Bargains alleged theftA London woman has made a data complaint after discovering she had been put on a facial recognition camera watchlist at a Home Bargains store after a dispute over 39p worth of paracetamol.She learned of her entry on a database of banned customers when a member of staff at the store in Grove Farm retail park, in Chadwell Heath, asked her to leave and directed her attention to a Facewatch sign. Continue reading...

Scottish Labour leader accuses SNP of misinformation in its campaign and attacks Reform's dirty' tactics

Census finds just 56.7% in world's biggest Catholic country follow Roman church as evangelical numbers riseHome to the world's largest Catholic population, Brazil has once again witnessed a decline in the faith's following, according to new figures released by the country's national statistics institute (IBGE).Thirty years ago, Catholics made up 82.9% of Brazil's population but now account for just over half, 56.7%, according to the 2022 census - whose results on religion were only released on Friday. Continue reading...

Provisional trial date set for next April for Roman Lavrynovych, 21, Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, and Petro Pochynok, 34Two men charged with arson over fires at homes and a car linked to Keir Starmer made their first appearance at a crown court on Friday.The Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych, 21, and the Ukrainian-born Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, appeared at the Old Bailey in London via video link from Belmarsh prison. Petro Pochynok, 34, a Ukrainian national, refused to leave his cell and did not appear in court. Continue reading...

Shafarat Mohammed attempted to sue Derbyshire police after colleague asked him to take part in the gameA police officer was asked by a colleague to take part in a game of snog, marry, avoid" using images of sex workers and criminal suspects, a tribunal has heard.Shafarat Mohammed attempted to sue Derbyshire police for racial discrimination and harassment after he was asked to take part in the game by a fellow officer. Continue reading...

Revealed: security trailing students on and off campus as video shows investigator faking disability when confrontedThe University of Michigan is using private, undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestinian campus groups, including trailing them on and off campus, furtively recording them and eavesdropping on their conversations, the Guardian has learned.The surveillance appears to largely be an intimidation tactic, five students who have been followed, recorded or eavesdropped on said. The undercover investigators have cursed at students, threatened them and in one case drove a car at a student who had to jump out of the way, according to student accounts and video footage shared with the Guardian. Continue reading...

France particularly badly hit, while rainfall across southern China triggers landslides and widespread disruptionThis week, large parts of Europe have been affected by a series of intense thunderstorms, bringing torrential rain, damaging winds and large hail.Central France was particularly badly affected by the severe weather, as powerful storm systems swept south-westward across the country. The departments of Loire and Puy-de-Dome were among the hardest hit, experiencing significant damage from a particularly violent supercell thunderstorm that produced hailstones measuring up to 6cm in diameter - larger than ping-pong balls. Continue reading...

Victory over SNP and Reform sends strong signal to Scotland's political parties before next May's Holyrood elections

Labour celebrated the incredible' win in the central seat of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, as voters rallied around popular local candidate Davy Russell

Two cold fronts moving in from the Great Australian Bight will bring rain, storms and hail across SA, Victoria and NSW over the King's birthday long weekend

Depiction of a stormy Bristol landscape to be sold after artist's signature was found when it was cleanedAn oil painting of a stormy Bristol landscape has been rediscovered as one of the earliest works of JMW Turner, created when the artist was 17 years old and lost to his canon for the past 150 years.Turner's signature on The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent's Rock, Bristol was discovered in the process of cleaning the painting after it was sold last year. Continue reading...

After one oarfish was found in Tasmania, two were discovered in New Zealand, but there is no evidence of link between sightings and natural disaster, say scientistsBad luck comes in threes, according to the saying. And this week three ethereal oarfish, nicknamed the doomsday fish", have washed up on the shores of Australia and New Zealand.Two headless specimens were found near Dunedin and Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island, following the discovery of an oarfish on Tasmania's west coast on Monday.Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...

Average property price drops 0.4% month on month in May to 296,648, Halifax says

This blog is now closedHealth minister confirms government reviewing ban on US beef importsThe health minister, Mark Butler, has confirmed the Albanese government is reviewing a ban on imports of American beef into Australia.This is US beef that's raised in Canada or Mexico, not cattle that are raised in the US itself, but then brought into America, slaughtered there and then proposed for exports.But this will be a decision taken on its merits, not for convenience, not to get a deal. We'll be taking a decision in the national interest in this area, as your viewers would expect us to.This isn't about protecting an industry's prosperity, it's about protecting an industry's integrity. So if you are tweaking biosecurity laws by watering them down, that's something that I think that we would be very concerned about. Continue reading...

Rosemary Gamble, owner of Taz-Zorb which set up the equipment in Tasmania, had pleaded not guilty to failing to comply with workplace safety laws

Move is part of 450m Wes Streeting plan to tackle long delays and end hospital overcrowdingHundreds of thousands of patients needing urgent medical help will be treated in settings other than A&E as part of a drive to cut corridor care" and avoid another NHS winter crisis.The move is a central plank of a government plan to improve urgent and emergency care in England, tackle the long delays many patients face in A&E and banish overcrowding in hospitals. Continue reading...

Space due to open next year will feature 1,000 works and provide a platform for local as well as global artistsCardiff is to welcome its first modern art museum, a space that aims to provide a platform for contemporary local artists as well as showcase global talent in the Welsh capital.The not-for-profit privately owned Artistic Museum of Contemporary Art (Amoca) will feature about 1,000 works mostly drawn from the collection of co-founder Anders Hedlund, a Welsh-Swedish entrepreneur and philanthropist. Continue reading...

Incident happened as one of the Royal Australian Navy's largest ships was on its way to Wellington this week

Akua Reindorf said law never permitted self-ID, but trans campaigners call remarks profoundly unhelpful'Transgender people must accept a reduction in their rights after the supreme court decision on gender because they have been lied to over many years" about what their rights actually were, one of the commissioners drawing up the official post-ruling guidance has said.Speaking at a debate about the repercussions of April's ruling that woman" in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman, Akua Reindorf said trans people had been misled about their rights and there has to be a period of correction". Continue reading...

Historian mapping medieval murders has evidence John Ford's stabbing was revenge hit by impenitent ex-loverAlmost 700 years ago, in a busy London street in the shadow of St Paul's Cathedral, a priest called John Ford was brazenly stabbed to death in a crime notable both for its public nature and its ferocity.It was early evening, just after vespers on 4 May 1337, and the street in Westcheap would have been bustling with passersby. In full view of them all, one man sliced Ford's throat with an anelace, a foot-long dagger, while two others used long knives to stab him in the belly. Was someone trying to make a very public example of the victim? Continue reading...

Consumer group makes claims of some questionable and dodgy pricing tactics' on retailer's websiteSports Direct could be breaking the law by misleading shoppers into thinking they are getting a good deal, a consumer body has claimed, after it looked at prices of items ranging from trainers to hoodies.Which? said it had reported the retailer to the Competition and Markets Authority after uncovering what it claimed were some questionable and dodgy pricing tactics" on its website. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Levels of multi-stress' at highest since 2008 crash, study says, with people feeling profoundly powerlessMore than 5 million UK adults are experiencing a triple whammy of financial, health and housing insecurity as British households hit levels of multi-stress" not seen since the global economic crash well over a decade ago, research shows.One in 10 working-age adults are juggling low income and debt, insecure tenancies and high rents, and problems accessing NHS care. They are at least twice as likely as the rest of the population to report mental stress, sleeplessness and isolation. Continue reading...

Victorian woman, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder after a fatal beef wellington lunch in Leongatha in 2023. Follow livePatterson denies telling ex-partner she had important medical news she wanted advice onRogers says Simon gave evidence that on 16 July 2023 - two weeks prior to the lunch - Patterson approached him after a church service and said she had some important medical news she wanted advice on and how to break it to the children. Continue reading...

Queensland police arrested a 34-year-old man and 33-year-old woman in Bundaberg area and charged them with murder

This blog is now closed

Tess McClure reports on a landslide in Switzerland that left one person missing and destroyed a villageThe Swiss village of Blatten was wiped out in seconds. A glacier collapsed above the village on 28 May, triggering a landslide. The 300 residents had been evacuated a week earlier, but a 64-year-old man who is believed to have stayed is missing.Tess McClure, the Guardian's commissioning editor for the Age of Extinction, reported on the aftermath. Continue reading...

Car company's shares dropped by 14.2% as US president and the billionaire trade barbs on social mediaTesla's shares dropped by around 14.2% on Thursday at market close as a feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump erupted into public view, decreasing the value of the company to roughly $900bn. The former political allies traded threats and insults through posts on their respective social media platforms throughout the afternoon as the company's price fell.Trump suggested on Truth Social that he could cut Musk's government subsidies and contracts, of which both Tesla and SpaceX have been immense beneficiaries. Musk meanwhile threatened to decommission the SpaceX spacecraft that Nasa relies on for transport missions, called for Trump's impeachment, derided the president's signature tariffs and accused him of being affiliated with notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Continue reading...

Higgins decries pushback against the very idea that sexual violence deserves to be taken seriously' in first speech since returning to public life

Gang of about 100 armed men' operate in eastern Rafah with tacit approval of IDF in apparent attempt to counter HamasIsrael's government has been accused of arming a Palestinian criminal gang whose members have allegedly looted humanitarian aid, in an apparent attempt to counter Hamas in Gaza.Satellite images and videos verified by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz showed on Thursday that a new Palestinian militia has expanded its presence in southern Gaza, and is operating inside an area under the direct control of the Israel Defense Forces. Continue reading...

Friedrich Merz struggles to get word in as US president focuses on record of former German leader who left office in 2021Donald Trump has heaped criticism on the former German chancellor Angela Merkel for opening up her country to refugees, telling her successor: I told her it shouldn't have happened."During an appearance with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, on Thursday, Trump was asked about the sweeping travel restrictions on 19 countries that he announced the previous day. Continue reading...

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas was arrested after NCA officers seized cannabis being transported through Stansted by two women he had recruitedAn ex-Arsenal academy footballer has been jailed for four years for his involvement in a 600,000 drug smuggling plot after a court heard his financial difficulties after a period out of contract led to a catastrophic error of judgment".Jay Emmanuel-Thomas was arrested after officers from the National Crime Agency seized an estimated 600,000 of cannabis as it was being brought through Stansted by two women he had recruited - his girlfriend and her friend. Continue reading...

As Elon Musk and Donald Trump continue to sling accusations at each other on their social media platforms, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Susan Glasser of the New Yorker about what caused it to all fall apartArchive: Fox News, CBS News, CNBC, Associated Press, ABC 7 Chicago, NBC Continue reading...

US president adds sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while' as he and German chancellor also express unhappiness with Russian invasionUK trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds has also called for reforms of the WTO including changes to the much-criticised dispute resolutions system which can also take years to settle disputes between trading nations.We do recognise that reforming and repositioning the WTO so that it can respond more effectively to the challenges of today is the only way to safeguard long term stability and growth tomorrow. Continue reading...

Heckles, chants and legal threats at meeting as people condemn plan for brutalist' block where loved ones are buriedDozens of grave owners confronted Highgate cemetery's bosses and their architects this week in a growing row over a maintenance and toilet block in a part of the graveyard where almost 200 people were recently buried.The cemetery called Tuesday's private meeting in an attempt to placate objectors by setting out adjustments to a new building that is part of an 18m redevelopment of the graveyard. Continue reading...

Judges consider verdicts against three men after hearing four days of evidence that prosecutor calls overwhelming'Three former executives at the French video game company Ubisoft used their position to bully or sexually harass staff, leaving women terrified and feeling like pieces of meat, a French court has heard.The state prosecutor Antoine Haushalter said the trial of three senior game creators for alleged bullying, sexual harassment and, in one case, attempted sexual assault was a turning point" for the gaming world. It is the first big trial to result from the #MeToo movement in the video games industry, and Haushalter said the case had revealed overwhelming" evidence of harassment. Continue reading...

It's odd that the move comes as a sunset clause' that allows Kristo Kaarmann enhanced rights here approaches expiryBack in 2021, the arrival on the London stock market of Wise, a rapidly expanding money transfer company, generated a feelgood factor at a useful moment.It came a month after overhyped Deliveroo flopped on debut. And, since Wise was a pure fintech business, as opposed to a pizza delivery outfit with an app, there was reason to think the UK might be getting its act together in the sector that politicians swoon over. Shoreditch's finest, and its Estonian founders, would show the way in UK fintech. Wise sported a 9bn valuation. Continue reading...

Yusuf had suggested it was dumb' for Sarah Pochin to call on prime minister to introduce a banZia Yusuf has resigned as chair of Reform UK after earlier suggesting it was dumb" of the party's newest MP to call for a ban on the burqa.Yusuf was a donor to the party before becoming its chair last summer after the election. Continue reading...

ECJ advocate general condemns stigmatising' law that bars such content from schools and primetime TV

Felton to make Broadway debut in play set 19 years after events of the final book in JK Rowling's fantasy seriesTom Felton is to reprise his role as Draco Malfoy for the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play.The actor, who starred in all the film adaptations of JK Rowling's fantasy novels, will make a comeback as Harry Potter's school bully on Broadway at the Lyric theatre in New York later this year. Continue reading...

Infected males produce higher-quality sperm, display brighter throat patches and sire nearly a third more offspring

Zia Yusuf said Sarah Pochin's question to the prime minister on banning the burqa was not party policyA row has broken out in Reform UK after its newest MP called on the prime minister to ban the burqa, with that party's chair, Zia Yusuf, saying it was a dumb" question given that was not party policy.Sarah Pochin, who recently won the Runcorn and Helsby byelection, asked Keir Starmer in parliament on Wednesday: Given the prime minister's desire to strengthen strategic alignment with our European neighbours, will he in the interests of public safety follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others and ban the burqa?" Continue reading...

State's parliament to resume on Tuesday to pass supply bills before Rockliff again requests election be called, as budget has not yet passed

Shadow chancellor to accept Truss's mini-budget badly damaged party in clearest repudiation yet of ex-PM

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, who opposed the inquiry, said NSW's compensation scheme was running a $5m deficit every day

Triple murder accused also tells court she had a stupid kneejerk reaction to just dig deeper, and keep lying' to police after lunch guests died