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Flatlining figure confounds forecasts of an increase to 3% as Bank of England prepares to set interest ratesUK inflation unexpectedly remained at 2.8% last month despite the Middle East war driving up energy prices, official figures have shown.May's annual price rise reading recorded by the Office for National Statistics confounded economists' forecasts of a rise to 3%. Continue reading...

As bosses ridicule the chancellor's scheme, one venue is offering a 25 kids' menu of snails and anchovy butter toastRestaurants and pubs are expected to devise enterprising" schemes to exploit a tax break on meals for under-18s, after one venue launched a menu for kids" featuring wild burgundy snail salad and anchovy butter toast.Rachel Reeves last month announced a temporary cut in VAT on children's meals from 20% to 5% between 25 June and 1 September, part of a Great British summer savings scheme" to support struggling venues and ease pressure on families. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: The far right are using social media to foster division, from Southampton to Belfast, but there are calls for clear and urgent ways to counter digital radicalismGood morning. Ten years after the murder of the MP Jo Cox by a rightwing extremist in the run-up to the Brexit referendum, her sister Kim Leadbeater, now herself a MP, issued a clear and urgent summons.In an interview on our Today in Focus podcast, she proposed that political hatred in Britain is worse now than at the time of her sister's killing, but insisted those voices who are sowing the division are in the minority."UK news | A Russian warship fired warning shots within a few hundred metres of a British pleasure yacht sailing across the Channel amid a period of heightened tensions between London and Moscow.UK politics | The Lib Dems will urge Andy Burnham to end Labour's torpor and timidity" towards the EU as they call for the UK to rejoin the single market, in a notable strengthening of their own position.Middle East | Iran's top diplomat has said a peace deal with the US would require Israel to withdraw from Lebanon, as concern grows that Israel could undermine diplomatic efforts to finally end the Middle East war.Media | A BBC presenter lauded by the corporation for his appeal to young male audiences has a history of making abusive and misogynistic remarks about women, whom he has variously called slags", sluts", psychos" and bitches", the Guardian can reveal.US news | Joe Biden's decision to seek a second term was a terrible mistake" that cost Democrats the presidency and may have permanently damaged his legacy, Hillary Clinton has declared. Continue reading...

Girl told mother she thought about killing people all the time', inquest into 10-year-old Biddy Porter's death hears

Exclusive: Cain has been lauded by corporation for his appeal to young men despite history of abusive and misogynistic remarks Warning: this article contains sexually explicit, offensive languageA BBC presenter lauded by the corporation for his appeal to young male audiences has a history of making abusive and misogynistic remarks about women, whom he has variously called slags", sluts", psychos" and bitches", the Guardian can reveal.Ashley Cain is the presenter of the BBC Three documentary series Ashley Cain: Into the Danger Zone, which was filmed on location earlier this year after the BBC commissioned a second series. Continue reading...

Minnie the Minx and Macbeth feature in National Library's exploration of how rainfall has shaped Scottish science, literature, history and identityIt seems fitting that, 250 years ago, one of Scotland's foremost scientists took a close interest in what is arguably the country's most famous feature: rainJames Hutton, celebrated by Scots as the father of modern geology, went so far as to write a formula for a theory of rain". In 1784, he sketched out the key principles for the condensation of aqueous vapour contained in the air". Continue reading...

National Audit Office says agency proposes closing operations in 11 countries as part of turnaround planThe British Council faces cutting its workforce further and closing operations in 11 countries as it struggles to repay a crippling 197m Covid-era government loan that threatens its survival, the public spending watchdog has said.The UK's soft-power agency remains loss-making six years on from the pandemic and is not expected to make a profit until 2029-30, a report from the National Audit Office says. Continue reading...

Candidates must work their ass off' to stop One Nation or expect withdrawal of union support, Trades Hall Council secretary says

Carnivorous animal taken to hospital in an unstable condition after escaping from quarantine facility in Paradise Country on 2 June

Governments around the world want to keep under-16s off YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Australia has introduced a ban and now the UK is doing the same. Stephen Byrne and Chris Stokel-Walker reportKeir Starmer announced on Monday that he wanted to ban under-16s from social media. Parents were calling out for more controls he said. But their children ... well, their children have other ideas.Snapchat, for example, is one of the best things that's happened to me," a 13-year-old tells Helen Pidd. I don't think adults understand, that is how we talk to our friends and fit in." Continue reading...

Departing Mike DeWine, who co-wrote state's death penalty bill, says I no longer believe [it] is a deterrent to murder'Republican governor Mike DeWine, the who co-wrote the bill to reinstate Ohio's death penalty more than 45 years ago, has called for the state to abolish capital punishment, saying it did not improve public safety and could no longer be morally justified.I no longer believe the death penalty is a deterrent to murder," DeWine said on Tuesday. The moral justification I had for voting for the death penalty simply no longer exists." Continue reading...

ARN Media settlement of dispute with sacked radio host includes $12.09m cash payment and $1.5m worth of advertising

Bomber that crashed during test flight at Edwards air force base in California killed all eight crew membersThe investigation into a US air force bomber's deadly crash during a test flight at a California base on Monday could take up to six months to complete, officials said.The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, carrying eight people, crashed in a fiery explosion that sent up thick plumes of smoke at the Edwards air force base in the Mojave desert, about 100 miles (161km) north-east of Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Brazil supreme court finds that Eduardo Bolsonaro - who resides in the US - tried to get sanctions put on judges trying ex-president over coup plotBrazil's supreme court has sentenced Eduardo Bolsonaro to four years and two months in prison after finding him guilty of courting US interference in his father's coup plot trial last year.The office of Brazil's prosecutor general had charged Eduardo Bolsonaro - who lives in the US - courting interference from the Trump administration to help Jair Bolsonaro's case, by imposing sanctions on the court's justices and tariffs on Brazilian goods. Continue reading...

Video taken after the shooting shows a woman sobbing over the pet with nearly a dozen officers standing aroundPolice in California shot and killed a family's pet dog wearing a New York Knicks jersey after they were called to a report of a screaming woman who turned out to be celebrating the basketball team's championship win.Video of the aftermath of Saturday's shooting of the two-year-old doodle named Jameson, the sweetest boy in the world", according to the dog's owner, received millions of views on TikTok on Tuesday. Continue reading...

The countries are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding on Friday before proceeding to the next stage of talks

Shots fired within 500 metres of vessel near Isle of Wight amid heightened tensions between London and MoscowA Russian warship fired warning shots within a few hundred metres of a British pleasure yacht sailing across the Channel on Tuesday morning amid a period of heightened tensions between London and Moscow.The rare incident took place at 11.40am more than 20 miles south of the Isle of Wight and less than 40 miles north of Normandy, France, when the yacht, identified as the private vessel Bright Future, sailed close to the Admiral Grigorovich and ignored at least one warning. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Royal College of Nursing says 1.5m vulnerable people not getting the right care, as specialism is consistently undermined'The specialist learning-disability nurse workforce is in absolute crisis" with the number of specialist nurses falling by a third across the UK since 2009, leaving many vulnerable adults with inadequate care, according to a report by the largest nursing union.The Royal College of Nursing review revealed that the number of learning-disability nurses employed by the NHS has fallen from 7,083 in 2009 to 4,768 in 2026. As a result of these falling numbers, 1.5 million people with learning disabilities were not being provided with their legal right to equitable access to health and care services. Continue reading...

General secretary of TUC calls Reform proposal a smokescreen for slashing women's rights'

Young adults and teens are being recruited through apps like Telegram and paid to carry out attacks, officials sayPolice investigators in Toronto have said that dozens of shootings - including one at the US consulate in March - are linked to a multilayered" gun-for-hire network that is also responsible for attacks on synagogues around Canada's largest city.Toronto's police chief, Myron Demkiw, told reporters on Tuesday that young adults and teenagers are being recruited through encrypted messaging apps such as Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp by bad actors" and paid by the networks to carry out the attacks. Shooters are required to film their attacks in order to get paid. Continue reading...

British prime minister was left making small talk unsure if a meeting with Trump and Zelenskyy was going aheadThe wait for Keir Starmer's first session of the G7 gathering in Evian-les-Bains was undoubtedly awkward. A meeting about the future of Ukraine had been due to start at 9am but more than half an hour later, Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron were nowhere to be seen.On a live Reuters feed, Starmer could be seen standing next to the leaders of Canada and Japan as they milled about making small talk. Are they, are they having a meeting?" the British prime minister could be heard asking. If he was referring to the missing attenders, and they were indeed having a meeting, it was clear he hadn't been invited. Continue reading...

Helen Cammock says her comments blaming wartime leader for Bengal famine were intended to create dialogue'A Turner prize-winning artist accused of telling a barefaced lie" about Winston Churchill in a video piece installed at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) has defended her work, saying it was intended to create a dialogue" about figures in the gallery's collection.Helen Cammock's 40-minute moving image piece called Persistence has been at the centre of a row about the role Churchill played in the Bengal famine of 1943. Continue reading...

Prime minister faces prospect of going it alone against Iran as strategic interests of US and Israel are divergingIt took more than a day after news of Donald Trump's deal with Iran went public for Benjamin Netanyahu to speak out.When he finally appeared at a press conference on Monday evening, the Israeli prime minister skirted a cornerstone of his past public appearances: his excellent relationship with the US president. Continue reading...

Abbas Araghchi says war not fully come to an end' without Israeli forces leaving territories occupied during present conflict

Prosecution alleges Tony Bartlett shook four-week-old Atticus Bartlett so violently he suffered fatal brain damageA mother has described in court the moment she came downstairs to find her four-week-old baby floppy and grey after her partner allegedly shook him so violently he caused brain damage.Atticus Bartlett collapsed at the family home in Chard, Somerset, after the alleged attack by his father, Tony Bartlett, 39, who was a postal worker. He denies murder and manslaughter. Continue reading...

MEPs agree to implement deal almost 12 months after it was proposed and just days before deadline of US threat to raise tariffsThe European parliament has given its final approval to implement last July's tariff agreement with Donald Trump.Facing a threat of increased tariffs if the deal was not sanctioned by 4 July, MEPs agreed to approve the deal, with two main provisos. Continue reading...

James Bond actor, who is only the second non-royal woman to be celebrated in this way, called the honour truly overwhelming'Dame Judi Dench is to have a West End theatre renamed after her, becoming only the second non-royal woman to be honoured in such a way.The Shaftesbury theatre will be known as the Judi Dench theatre from February 2027 in celebration of the actor's unparalleled contribution to British theatre and the performing arts". Continue reading...

Conservatives accused of attack on crucial safeguards' and of fostering climate of hostility' towards judiciary

Any sense of relief is offset by doubts over durability of agreement and feelings of betrayal by Trump administration

Call at G7 summit in France comes as Ukraine president tells US counterpart Kyiv is no longer losing on battlefield

Ridglan Farms facility in Wisconsin was at the center of protests against the practice of using animals for researchA beagle breeding and research facility in Wisconsin that has been the focus of animal rights protests is shutting down, and a rescue group in Florida is taking in the remaining dogs.Not one dog will remain," Lauree Simmons, founder of Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Florida, said in a press conference announcing the news on Monday. No more breeding, no more testing, no more anything." Continue reading...

Administration had claimed algae at Lincoln Memorial pool would be cleared after the renovation, but it has proliferated amid warm weatherDonald Trump's $14.2m bid to turn the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool from what the US president described as a filthy" and dirty" site into a beautiful" monument has encountered a hitch.The water is green again. Continue reading...

With election denialists installed in key positions, officials using series of measures to change voting rulesThe Trump administration is waging war on voting rights using justice department lawsuits, FBI investigations, and an executive order to limit voting by mail, moves mirroring the US president's false claims he lost the 2020 election due to voting fraud, say election experts and ex-officials.Since Donald Trump began his second term, numerous 2020 election denialists have been installed in key agencies such as the DoJ, the FBI and elsewhere to pursue widely discredited claims of fraud, which can intimidate election workers and voters in swing states that Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020. Continue reading...

Country acts amid Iran war inflation pressures, but US Fed and Bank of England expected to hold rates

Hania Ahmed, 9, died after Punjab police opened fire on suspected robbers as well as her family in Chakwal

Former SAS soldier had been invited along with all other living Victoria Cross recipients, judge told

ABF's bakeries arm would be likely to exit the market entirely if the deal did not proceed, CMA finds

Victoria and NSW police search seven properties as they examine where shooter travelled after killing two officers in Porepunkah

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Few analysts believe final settlement can be reached in 60 days - and even if it is, war and instability could soon returnIn much of the Middle East, news that the US and Iran had come to a fragile agreement was greeted with relief tempered with doubt that any deal would resolve the turbulent region's deep problems or even prevent a future return to war.In Kuwait, a frequent target of Iranian drone strikes during the 15-week conflict, Iyad Joumma, a 37-year-old Jordanian engineer, spoke for many. Continue reading...

Reserve Bank of Australia decision on Tuesday comes after three consecutive cash rate hikes this year

El Nino events linked with extreme weather around the world - and can increase risk of bushfires in Australia and coral bleaching on Great Barrier Reef

Play at Gillian Lynne theatre in London will cycle through versions with weekend crowds able to pick oneIn keeping with its well-earned reputation for cloak and dagger, the stage adaptation of the hit gameshow Traitors will present audiences with different renditions of the story depending on which night they attend.The Traitors: Acts of Betrayal will take the form of a five-play cycle, with weekend crowds able to determine which version of the BBC show dramatisation they see. Continue reading...

Some titles that once backed the Tories now flirting with Farage' as they try to gauge where readers standIt was a Mail on Sunday headline with all the ferocity usually reserved for general elections, directed squarely at a political opponent. But in this case, the traditionally Conservative-supporting title was not targeting Labour.The party in its crosshairs was Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain, the vehemently rightwing outfit that regards Nigel Farage's Reform UK as too weak on deporting migrants. Continue reading...

Emily Lal - paid $6,000 to provide freebirth support package to Stacey Warnecke - tells coroner her role was primarily to be a supportive friend'

In today's newsletter: An argument about money has also spotlighted questions about Britain's place in the world and the changing face of warfareGood morning. What conflict has raged longer than the hundred years war? The fight between the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury over defence spending.I'd love to claim this as my own, but avoid patter theft this early in the day. So I'll credit my colleague Dan Sabbagh, the Guardian's defence and security editor, who spoke to me ahead of this week's G7 meeting, in France, where Keir Starmer arrived yesterday for what could be his final international summit. The prime minister can anticipate candid discussions about international partnerships in conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, both of which may soon demand increased involvement from the British military.Middle East | Donald Trump has declared that the strait of Hormuz will be completely open" from Friday, as western leaders gathering at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains battled to prevent the fragile US deal with Iran from almost immediately unravelling.UK politics | Political hatred and division in the UK is probably worse now than during the Brexit referendum, when Jo Cox was murdered, says Kim Leadbeater, Cox's sister who is now also a Labour MP.Crime | A schoolteacher described as a serial manipulator and a serial liar" has been found guilty of sexually abusing and murdering a baby he and his partner had adopted.Environment | Half of the world's children are exposed to at least three overlapping climate hazards threatening their health, education and survival, according to a Unicef report.US news | Eight people are presumed dead after a B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff on Monday morning at a US air force base in California's Mojave Desert, officials said. Continue reading...

Former PE teacher will serve time for crimes perpetrated at Traralgon high school in Gippsland concurrently with prior 48-year sentence

Exclusive: Carns, who quit last week, says he was angered by unwillingness to confront sunk costs of legacy programmesThere is unbelievable" waste and inefficiency at the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the former armed forces minister Al Carns has said, adding that every time he would turn a stone over" he would get another shock.Carns said that during his time as a defence minister he had been angered by the unwillingness to confront the sunk costs of legacy programmes - and suggested mismanaged programmes such as tanks investment should be scrapped in favour of new technology. Continue reading...

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launches federal court action against restaurant over Tree Day Tuesday campaignThe consumer regulator has sued Grill'd over allegations the burger retailer engaged in greenwashing by dramatically overstating how much money it was donating towards one of its key environmental campaigns.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on Tuesday announced it had launched federal court action against Grill'd, alleging it misrepresented its Tree Day Tuesday campaign for more than three years. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Commons motion calls for code of practice to be blocked amid concerns over impact on transgender peopleA number of Labour MPs are increasingly doubtful that the guidance on how organisations should implement the supreme court ruling on sex as it applies in the Equality Act is workable in the real world, with some predicting it will unleash a wave of competing legal claims.A total of 135 MPs, 69 of them from Labour, have signed a Commons motion calling for the code of practice drafted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, approved last month, to be blocked, primarily because of worries about its impact on transgender people. Continue reading...