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Israeli military says it struck Hezbollah intelligence and weapons storage, as rocket hits Haifa injuring at least 5 people

US and EU are supporting infrastructure projects in Angola, which has historically been closer to Russia and ChinaWhen Joe Biden travels to Angola on Sunday, it will be the first trip to an African country of his presidency and the first to the continent by a sitting US president since Barack Obama visited Kenya and Ethiopia in 2015.It is a marker of how Africa's 54 countries are increasingly courted by global powers, drawn to the continent by geopolitical shifts and an abundance of minerals needed for electric cars and other battery-powered technologies. Continue reading...

Ex-president has pledged regulatory changes and other policies to boost big donors' businesses, watchdogs sayAs Donald Trump has ramped up fundraising from mega-donors for his 2024 presidential campaign and allied Super Pacs, he has increasingly pledged regulatory changes and other policies to boost their businesses, campaign-finance watchdogs have warned.Experts say Trump's political pitches and maneuverings are a clearly transactional" chase for big checks, and pose a serious danger of major corruption in a US political system already flooded with powerful donors and lobbyists. Continue reading...

Steven James Hubbard given six years and 10 months in prison, but family cast doubt on his reported confessionA Russian court has sentenced a 72-year-old American citizen, Stephen James Hubbard, to six years and 10 months in prison after convicting him in a closed-door trial of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine.Investigators said Hubbard, a native of Michigan, was paid $1,000 (760) a month to serve in a Ukrainian territorial defence unit in the eastern city of Izyum, where he had been living since 2014. Continue reading...

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Hurricane activity is strong in Atlantic while months of below-average rainfall in South America leads to droughtHurricane Kirk is heading towards Europe. At its peak strength in the mid-Atlantic, Kirk reached category 4 status with maximum wind speeds of 145mph. As Kirk tracks north-east towards Europe, leaving the warm seas behind, it is expected to be downgraded to a category 1 hurricane by Monday.Over the next few days, Kirk will undergo extratropical transition, becoming an ex-hurricane by the time it reaches Europe's shores on Tuesday or Wednesday. Although there remains some model differences in the exact path of extratropical cyclone Kirk, it is projected to track across northern Europe with France, Belgium, the Netherlands and then northern Germany having the strongest winds and heaviest rain. Southernmost parts of the UK may experience some heavy rainfall if the system tracks ever so slightly further north. Continue reading...

John Healey says government getting on with job' and defends decision not to rush budget'

Halifax says rising pay and falling interest rates help make mortgages more affordable for some homebuyers

Body believed to be that of missing 31-year-old babysitter located at destroyed townhouse in Thorneside

Ukraine-born Mikola Bychok will become the only Australian resident in the powerful Catholic church position and the youngest cardinal overall

Trade groups warn against government's idea that those further from power projects should pay more

Labor condemns Hamas and acknowledges devastating' loss of civilian lives. Coalition offers emphatic support of Israel and chides calls for a ceasefire

Northern Thailand has been hit by severe floods over recent weeks, with Typhoon Yagi worsening the seasonal monsoon rainsTwo elephants have drowned, while power was cut and hotels were forced to evacuate guests after the Thai tourist hotspot Chiang Mai was hit by its worst flooding in decades over the weekend.Across Thailand, 20 provinces are flooded, including nine in the northern region, where 8,625 households are affected according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. Continue reading...

Technical issues meant the film, starring Dakota Johnson, was played on all screens before it was swapped for a family-friendly movie

Quarter of posts in adult psychiatry vacant, forcing hospitals to rely on expensive private coverScotland's health boards have paid up to 837 an hour for locum psychiatrists to help cope with a deepening staff shortage crisis in mental health services.They have been charged more than 130m by dozens of private health care companies to provide temporary psychiatrists over the past five years, including one firm now owned by two billionaires from Texas.Annual spending by Scotland's 14 health boards on locum psychiatrists reached nearly 35m last year, up from 20m five years ago.NHS Tayside has spent more than 30m since 2019, and NHS Fife nearly 26m.One company charged NHS Lothian nearly 350,000 for 416 hours of cover in 2019, at an average hourly cost of 837.NHS Western Isles paid 27,000 for one week of round-the-clock cover in April 2023. Continue reading...

Patients angry at getting contradictory advice, inconsistent care and facing indifference from locums, survey findsThe complaints about locum psychiatrists have a clear pattern. Patients say they routinely experience inconsistent care or get contradictory advice. Some describe an indifference that borders on box-ticking.I had 14 locums [and] they all had different views and opinions on my care," said one respondent to a survey of 469 patients by the advocacy group Vox Scotland. The last locum did not bother to call me back. That was four months ago. I've had no contact from my mental health team since then." Continue reading...

Lobby group UK Steel said country faces cliff edge' in 2026 when current protections run outThe UK steel industry has called for the government to consider further protectionist trade measures as it braces for a flood of imported steel amid a global glut driven by China.UK Steel, a lobby group, said the global industry has 543m tonnes of excess steel, 70 times more than the UK uses each year, in analysis published on Monday. It said the UK faces a cliff edge" in 2026 when current protections run out. Continue reading...

Woman remains in seclusion after being found not guilty of assault due to mental impairment in 2015

One of UK's largest ever inquests to begin at Birmingham and Solihull coroner's court with cases of 62 peopleWhen Stuart Coyne received a letter to say his wife's death, now 16 years ago, was being investigated to see if she had died unnecessarily after being operated on by the disgraced surgeon Ian Paterson, he was taken aback.It was a shock; it came out of the blue. When Catherine died, we all thought that she'd had the best treatment for the breast cancer that she had," said Coyne, 70, who lives in Solihull. Now, of course, it raises that question - would she still be here today?" Continue reading...

Bethan McKernan visits Nir Oz in southern Israel to talk to survivors about Hamas's attack on 7 October last year, and to discuss what has happened to their kibbutz and the wider region sinceAbout a quarter of kibbutz Nir Oz's population was killed or kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October last year. Proportionally, nowhere in Israel was affected more.Twelve months later, our Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan, travels down southern Israel to visit the settlement, just a few miles away from the Gaza Strip, to talk to survivors. Continue reading...

Many are deeply sceptical of the argument that only more military pressure will bring their loved ones backEli Albag had been fighting for the release of his daughter from captivity in Gaza for almost a year when he was pelted with eggs and verbally abused.The father of Liri Albag, who is held hostage by Hamas, was protesting recently outside a political event attended by Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the coastal city of Netanya. Continue reading...

The 84-year-old actor speaks about contracting the virus in 2020, saying he didn't have a pulse' and came to with six paramedics in his houseAl Pacino has revealed he almost died from Covid-19 in 2020, saying he didn't have a pulse" for several minutes.In interviews with the New York Times and People magazine published on the weekend, the 84-year-old Godfather and Scarface actor detailed his experience with the virus, which he contracted in 2020 before a vaccine was available. Continue reading...

This blog has now closed. You can see all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war: one year on here and all our coverage of the Israel-Lebanon conflict here.The death toll from the Israeli strike on the Gaza mosque has risen to 24, according to local authorities. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said 93 people were also wounded in the strikes on the mosque and the school, near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.The al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital told the Associated Press that the strike hit a mosque sheltering displaced people. Eyewitnesses told Reuters the same. However Israeli forces say the mosque was being used as a Hamas command and control centre to plan and carry out terrorist operations against the IDF forces and the State of Israel", and that it took steps to reduce the chance of harming civilians. An AP reporter counted 18 bodies at the hospital morgue, and said hospital records listed all those killed as men. Continue reading...

All crew safe after specialist dive and hydrographic vessel ran aground near the southern coast of Upolu as it was conducting a reef surveyA Royal New Zealand Navy vessel has run aground and sunk off Samoa - the first time the navy has lost a ship since the second world war - , the New Zealand Defence Force said in a statement on Sunday.Manawanui, the navy's specialist dive and hydrographic vessel, ran aground near the southern coast of Upolu on Saturday night as it was conducting a reef survey, Commodore Shane Arndell, the maritime component commander of the New Zealand Defence Force, said in a statement. All 75 crew and passengers were safe. Continue reading...

Lai Ching-te argues the reverse may be true because the Republic of China - the mantle that nationalists carried with them to Taiwan - predates the People's RepublicIt is impossible" for the People's Republic of China to become Taiwan's motherland because Taiwan has older political roots, the island's president has said.Lai Ching-te, who took office in May, is condemned by Beijing as a separatist. He rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying the island is a country called the Republic of China that traces its origins back to the 1911 revolution overthrowing the last imperial dynasty. Continue reading...

Despite hostile political discourse about migrants, the numbers are steady, at less than 1% of total populationThe number of irregular migrants living in the UK and other large European countries has not changed for years despite hostile political discourse about migrants overwhelming the continent, according to researchers.Migration researchers from 18 of the world's leading universities and research organisations including the University of Oxford have released the public database as part of the MIrreM project, which measures irregular migration. Continue reading...

Leader of north African country expected to win second term after jailing opponents and changing constitutionPolls have closed in Tunisia's presidential election as the president, Kais Saied, seeks a second term, while his most prominent critics are in prison and after his main rival was jailed suddenly last month.Observers see the election, which Saied is expected to win, as a closing chapter in Tunisia's experiment with democracy. Continue reading...

Authorities braced for potential attacks on anniversary, as possibility also grows of retaliatory airstrike on Iran

Baloch Liberation Army claims it carried out vehicle-borne attack targeting Chinese nationalsAt least one person was killed and 10 injured in an explosion near the international airport of the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Sunday night, local media reported.The nature of the blast was not immediately clear, the broadcaster Geo News cited a provincial official as saying. He said at least one foreigner had been injured and that a convoy of foreigners was close to the explosion. Continue reading...

After claims of infighting and micromanagement, chief of staff is replaced by Morgan McSweeneyKeir Starmer moved to shore up his top team after his embattled chief of staff Sue Gray quit after months of sniping and criticism that she acknowledged had undermined the new Labour government.Gray resigned less than a week before the Labour government was due to mark its first 100 days in office, after becoming embroiled in a political storm at the heart of Downing Street. Continue reading...

Starmer had to choose between his chief of staff and the architect of Labour's election victory, Morgan McSweeneyIn the days running up to the Labour party conference one of Keir Starmer's most senior aides took him aside and told him he had to get a grip of his No 10 operation after weeks of damaging headlines over tensions within his top team.The aide was not alone. A handful of other advisers and friends had made a similar plea to the prime minister. Downing Street was dysfunctional, they told him, and the whole government was at risk of being undermined. Continue reading...

Dancer and designer who wrote autobiography about strained relationship with sister died of cancer in MichiganChristopher Ciccone, a multihyphenate artist, dancer, designer and younger brother of Madonna, has died. He was 63.Ciccone died Friday in Michigan, his representative Brad Taylor told the Associated Press Sunday. He had cancer. Continue reading...

Patients will increasingly see nurses, physiotherapists or pharmacists instead of GPs, says Frontier Economics studyKeir Starmer's pledge to bring back the family doctor" is in doubt because more and more patients will not see a GP over the next 10 years, according to research.By 2034, qualified GPs in England will deliver just 70% of all appointments at surgeries, down from the 90% who did so as recently as 2015, the analysis forecasts. Continue reading...

Man in his 20s was discovered in a Milan-bound aircraft without the correct documents, say policeA man was arrested after boarding an easyJet flight without the correct documents at Manchester airport.The man, in his 20s, was discovered on an aircraft due to depart for Milan, at 7pm on Friday and was detained by Greater Manchester police officers. Continue reading...

Firm accused of stereotyping in advert spotted at Vauxhall and Manor House tube stations in LondonHeinz has apologised after an advertisement displayed in London tube stations featuring a black family sparked anger online.The US manufacturer, which recently launched an ad campaign for family-sized pasta sauces, was criticised for promoting stereotypes in a billboard advertisement spotted at Vauxhall and Manor House stations. Continue reading...

The author, who lost an eye as a result of the attack, tells Lviv BookForum he is working on a trilogy of novellasSalman Rushdie, who survived a stabbing attack in 2022 that cost him an eye, is writing a new work of fiction, he has told the audience at Lviv BookForum.The author's new work will comprise three novellas, each of about 70 pages, and each relating to one of the three worlds in my life: India and England and America. And they all in some way consider the idea of an ending." Continue reading...

Fay Manners and Michelle Dvorak had been climbing Chaukhamba mountain when they issued an SOS on ThursdayA British mountaineer and her American companion who had been stranded in the Himalayas for three days without food have been rescued.Fay Manners, 37, and Michelle Dvorak, 31, had been climbing the Chaukhamba mountain in northern India, when they issued an SOS message on Thursday, with nothing further being heard from them. Continue reading...

Israeli president turns on French counterpart's continuing efforts towards a ceasefire and end to violence in Lebanon

After Iranian strikes damage bases and IDF take casualties in Lebanon, experts say Israel's military doctrine could be found wanting

Leigha and James Cartmell describe Jay, who was eight years old, as loving, kind and full of mischief'The family of an eight-year-old boy who died after being shot on a farm have described him as loving, kind and full of mischief".Jay Cartmell, who lived in the Cumbrian village of Frizington, sustained serious head injuries and died in hospital after the shooting last week. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Women aged 18 to 30 are more likely to feel money issues are getting worse than men of same age, according to surveyYoung women are struggling to rise above a sticky floor" at work amid a gulf in financial confidence between them and young men that leaves one in four clinging to jobs they don't enjoy, research suggests.British women aged 18 to 30 are worrying more about money, are more likely to feel their financial situation is getting worse, and more likely to be unable to afford food or other essentials than young men of the same age, according to a survey of about 5,000 young people, shared with the Guardian.41% of young women said their financial situation has worsened over the last 12 months, compared with 27% of young men.55% of young women are filled with dread" by their household finances compared with 43% of young men.40% of young women have had to cut back on or stop doing things they enjoy in the last 12 months because they can no longer afford them, compared with 28% of young men.32% of young women said their hopes for the future had worsened over the last 12 months, compared with 25% of young men. Continue reading...

Teenager alleged to have been recruited by prisoner who later called police to report him over killing of taxi driverMarseille's long-running drug turf wars are under a renewed spotlight after a 14-year-old boy was allegedly hired as a hitman via social media and promised 50,000 (42,000) by a prisoner to carry out a revenge killing.The teenager is alleged to have been recruited by the 23-year-old inmate who later called the police from his prison cell to report the boy after he allegedly shot dead a 36-year-old man. Continue reading...

Derbyshire authority proposes asking for up to 113 a week for children in care under voluntary arrangementsA cash-strapped English council is considering charging parents of children taken into local authority care half of the weekly cost of looking after them.Derbyshire county council said unprecedented financial challenges" meant it had little option but to maximise alternative sources of income" to try to reduce the strain on its children's services. The weekly charge would range from 90 to 113 depending on the child's age. Continue reading...

Latest system forms in Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, with forecasters expecting upgrade to hurricane in a few daysFlorida is expected to get walloped by another hurricane next week, just 10 days after it was hit by Hurricane Helene, which caused widespread storm surge and wind damage before it moved inland to cause devastating flooding.The latest system, Tropical Storm Milton, formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday. Forecasters expect the storm to quickly strengthen into a hurricane and rush toward Florida in the next few days. Continue reading...

Physical documents proving residence rights to be replaced by online visas at end of year despite functionality concernsPeople who have been UK residents for decades are worried they could find themselves locked out" of the country at the end of the year when eVisas come into force.The scheme means many physical immigration documents such as biometric residence permits (BRPs) or biometric residence cards (BRCs) need to be replaced by online visas, which critics have said do not work properly. Continue reading...

Former top civil servant says intense commentary around my position risked becoming a distraction'Sue Gray has resigned from her position as Keir Starmer's chief of staff after finding herself at the centre of a political storm since Labour came into power.Gray will be replaced by Morgan McSweeney, the party's election guru who masterminded Starmer's succession from Jeremy Corbyn, with whom she is said to have found herself at odds in government. Continue reading...

Parking tickets placed on 1980s background vehicles on set of AnemoneFilming for a new movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis was interrupted when traffic wardens in Chester began putting parking tickets on 1980s vehicles being used in the backdrop of a scene.Day-Lewis has come out of retirement for Anemone, which his son Ronan Day-Lewis is directing, and is starring alongside Sean Bean and Samantha Morton. Continue reading...

Confusion over 1 January start date as unions, tax experts and school leaders say it is unworkable

A week after the storm hit, the scale of the damage is still unknown - and many towns face a long road to recoveryAfter keeping vigil all night, Jason Fesperman, 32, decided it was finally safe to sleep. By 6am last Friday, he figured that the worst of the rain from Hurricane Helene had passed. Jonathan Creek, the normally ankle-deep stream that runs through his backyard in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, had stayed within its banks - though barely.Just over two hours later, his wife Dan woke him in a panic. Heavy rain continued past 9am in Maggie Valley, and by 8.30am, floodwaters were rising fast. Their home was underwater up to the windows. Continue reading...

University of Bath researchers found seven vaporizers sourced from the US contained dangerous SC compoundA new study from the University of Bath revealed that seven vaporizers claiming to contain cannabis actually contained a much more dangerous synthetic cannabinoid" (SC) compound.Earlier this year, the same lab published a study showing that over one in six vaporizers confiscated from schoolchildren across the UK also contained SCs. Continue reading...