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Washington considers Kharg Island takeover as Donald Trump calls Nato allies cowards' for refusal to help open' strait of Hormuz

DHSC corrects statements after regulator intervenes as experts say smoking causes far more cancer casesThe Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has had to retract a misleading claim that sunbeds are as dangerous a cancer risk as smoking.In January, health officials announced stricter rules for sunbeds, incorrectly claiming they were as dangerous as smoking". The comparison was repeated in social media posts shared by the health secretary and NHS England and was reported by a number of media outlets. Continue reading...

Cases emerge after other people tell of change in Home Office policy on passports that has left people scramblingTwo more British teenagers have found themselves unable to return to the UK because of new Home Office border rules on British dual nationals.Their cases emerged just hours after reports a 16-year-old British schoolgirl was blocked from boarding a flight in Denmark home to the UK because she was a dual national and did not have a British passport. She has missed two weeks of school so far. Continue reading...

Roberts, who was the first Aboriginal person to host a prime-time current affairs program, was diagnosed with a rare type of ovarian cancer seven months agoRhoda Roberts - obituaryRhoda Roberts, the Bundjalung Widjabul Wiyebal cultural leader and arts devotee, has died at the age of 66.In a statement made via Instagram, Roberts's family announced she had died peacefully in hospital on Saturday afternoon, having been diagnosed with a rare type of ovarian cancer seven months ago. Continue reading...

How infections linked to a nightclub escalated into a public health incident requiring a national response is a puzzle experts are still grappling withTyra Skinner had already been violently sick three times when doctors at Kent's William Harvey hospital realised something was badly wrong. The 20-year-old was rushed into critical care, racked with a pounding headache, a stiff neck and excruciating pain - the hallmark symptoms of meningitis, the disease that had already claimed two young lives in Kent.She could hardly move, she was in a foetal position. She was so cramped up and sore," her father, Dale Skinner, 42, told the Guardian. It was horrendous, to be honest, to see her so helpless and in so much pain." Continue reading...

Medics and officials say there is systematic use of double-tap strikes in campaign to make the south uninhabitable

Heavy rains have pummeled the Hawaiian island of Oahu and triggered the worst flooding the island has in 20 years

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent says move will bring 140m barrels to market but insists Tehran will not benefit

Mors Imperator caused a scandal in 1887 amid fears it mocked the German kaiser - more than 100 years later it is being displayed in a state museumWrapped in a cloak with ermine fur and wearing a jagged iron crown, a hulking skeleton rests one foot on a globe and knocks over a royal throne with a dramatic flick of its ivory wrist.Entitled Mors Imperator (Death is the Ruler"), the German artist Hermione von Preuschen's 1887 symbolical painting was meant to express the transience of fame and power. But authorities feared the picture could be seen as mocking the ageing German Emperor Wilhelm I, who then had recently turned 90, and refused to accept its submission to the Berlin Academy of the Arts' annual exhibition that year. Continue reading...

Regime will do whatever it takes to cling on to power - including sacrificing economies of other Gulf states

US president claims he always says yes' to Australia, Japan and South Korea, after saying he didn't need help from trio of countries earlier this week

This blog is now closed - our live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran continues in a new blog hereKuwait's state oil firm KPC said its Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery was hit by multiple drone attacks early on Friday, causing a fire in some units, with no initial casualties reported, the state news agency said.Firefighters responded immediately, with several units shut down as a precaution to ensure workers' safety. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed.

Family says actor, who played Xander in hit TV series, died on Friday in his sleep of natural causes'Nicholas Brendon, the actor best known for playing Xander in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has died. He was 54.Brendon's family issued a statement saying that he died on Friday in his sleep of natural causes". Continue reading...

California jurors hand win to investors who sued billionaire saying he publicly disparaged social media platform in 2022A California jury has ruled that Elon Musk is responsible for Twitter investors' stock plummeting when he sought to buy the social media platform for $44bn in 2022. Jurors handed the win to a group of investors who sued the billionaire saying he publicly disparaged the company with the aim of bringing down Twitter's stock price to get a better bargain.The trial, which began earlier this month in federal court in San Francisco, focused on whether Musk intended to move the market with his comments. During a six-month period in 2022, after his offer to buy Twitter, he posted constantly to his millions of followers that the social network was rife with bots that produced spam and created fake accounts. Continue reading...

Aoi Baxter was the party's candidate for the state seat of Adelaide in Saturday's electionFormer South Australian One Nation candidate, Aoi Baxter, has been dumped by the rightwing party, after media reports claiming there is a warrant for his arrest in the UK.Baxter, who was reportedly previously known as Trent Baxter, had allegedly failed to appear at a court hearing, according to reporting by the ABC. A UK court confirmed to the ABC a warrant had been issued for the arrest of a man named Trent Baxter. Continue reading...

Proposal fails to advance in Senate amid growing concerns about long lines to get through screening at some airportsA bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security failed to advance on Friday in the Senate amid growing concerns about long lines to get through screening at some of the country's biggest airports.Democrats declined to provide the support needed to move the funding measure toward final passage. Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said he would offer an alternative measure on Saturday to fund just the Transportation Security Administration, which screens passengers and luggage for hazardous items. That too is likely to fail as lawmakers hold a rare weekend session. Continue reading...

Very destructive winds gusting up to 195km/h are forecasted with the storm expected to intensify before it makes landfall again

Prosecutors say they paid slammers' to intentionally crash into tractor-trailers and file fraudulent lawsuits

Mary Fong Lau crashed into bus shelter in 2024, causing deaths of two parents and two infant childrenThe 80-year-old woman that prosecutors found responsible for a car crash that killed a family of four in San Francisco has been sentenced to two years of probation and will have her driver's license suspended.Lau will receive no jail time and will not be subject to home confinement. As part of her sentence, she must complete 200 hours of community service. Continue reading...

Former boxing world champion's cause of death was hanging but his intention was unclear, inquest concludesA coroner has said she cannot be satisfied" that British former boxing world champion Ricky Hatton intended to take his own life.Hatton, 46, was found dead in his home on 14 September, with the inquest concluding that the official cause of his death was hanging.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

One person survived and two were killed, the military said, who were turned over to Costa Rican coast guardUS Southern Command announced on Friday that US forces carried out another lethal kinetic strike" on a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the eastern Pacific which left one survivor and two people dead.After the strike, the military said that it immediately notified US Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system" for three people who survived the strike. The coast guard said in a statement that one of its ships recovered two dead bodies and one survivor and turned them over to the Costa Rican coast guard. Continue reading...

Lawsuit alleged changes gave DoD free rein to punish reporters and outlets over coverage it did not like

Calls for Pennsylvania senator - Trump's favorite Democrat' - to resign after casting decisive committee voteDemocrats reacted with outrage to their party colleague John Fetterman's decision to advance the nomination of Republican US senator Markwayne Mullin as homeland security secretary.Fetterman, the senior US senator from Pennsylvania, has in recent months broken with the party several times to support Republican proposals, and has routinely expressed staunch support for Israel. He cast the decisive committee vote on Thursday to advance Mullin's nomination to succeed Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary. Continue reading...

Judge rules that Trump's health secretary did not go through proper procedures when issuing declarationRobert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, overstepped his power when he declared that gender-affirming treatments are unsafe, a federal judge has ruled.In a blow to the Trump administration's attempts to limit access to gender transition procedures, Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled Thursday that Kennedy did not go through the proper procedures when issuing his 12-page declaration last December. Continue reading...

NTSB to investigate incident where commercial airliner and cargo plane tried to land on crossing runways in New JerseyA close call between a commercial airliner and a cargo plane attempting to land on crossing runways at New Jersey's Newark Liberty international airport is being investigated by federal aviation officials.The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Thursday said it was investigating an incident two days earlier during which an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 overflew a FedEx Boeing 777 at the busy New York City area airport. Continue reading...

Man wielding knife also tried to slash tires and taken into custody, with two transit officers and a police officer injuredSix people were brought to the hospital after a man wielding a butcher knife threatened to stab a bus driver and tried to slash tires at a Boston transit station on Friday before being taken into custody, authorities said.Among those injured were two transit officers, a Boston police officer and the suspect in the case, said Richard Sullivan, superintendent of police for the Massachusetts Bay transportation authority. Sullivan, who briefed reporters at a news conference, said he wasn't aware of the other two reported as injured by Boston's emergency medical services agency. Continue reading...

Veteran broadcaster interviewed prominent female leaders including Margaret Thatcher and Hillary ClintonJenni Murray, the broadcaster who hosted BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour for more than 30 years, has died at the age of 75.Murray joined the programme in 1987 and presented it until she departed as its longest-serving presenter in 2020. She was awarded a damehood in 2011 in recognition of her contribution to broadcasting. Continue reading...

Officials understood to be investigating use of visas by company linked to Ahmadi Religion of Peace and LightThe Home Office is investigating a company linked to a religious sect based in Cheshire over its use of immigration visas.The company under investigation is linked to the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (AROPL), a sect that blends tenets of Islam with conspiracy theories about the Illuminati and aliens controlling US presidents. Followers believe the sect's leader, Abdullah Hashem, can cure the sick and make the moon disappear. About 100 of his followers live in a former orphanage in Crewe, in the north-west of England. Continue reading...

Eid al-Fitr celebrated amid political furore over claims public Ramadan prayers an act of domination'On Friday morning, little space remained in Baitul Futuh mosque as thousands of people poured in to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.The south London mosque, one of the largest in Europe, offered a glimpse of the Eid al-Fitr festivities being celebrated by millions of Muslims across the UK. This year, however, a political furore around one of the most important holidays in the Islamic calendar has divided UK party leaders, drawn warnings of bigotry and left members of the community feeling disturbed and disappointed. Continue reading...

Forces have been stripped back since the cold war but political stasis is dangerous in the face of growing global threatsIt will have been more than three weeks since the US and Israel first attacked Iran when the first British warship finally arrives off the coast of Cyprus, a belated defensive deployment that has highlighted the lack of military capacity available to the UK.Nominally, HMS Dragon was one of three destroyers available out of six. In reality the warship has had to be hauled out of dry dock, prepared and then, after launch, tested for several days in the Channel. Its arrival date is still unconfirmed. Continue reading...

Martinez Lake, about 145 miles west of Phoenix, reached 110F (43.3C) on Thursday amid scorching south-west heat

International Energy Agency recommends emergency measures, including working from home, as Iran war hits fuel supplyLowering speed limits to minimise fuel consumption is among potential contingency plans being drawn up by the UK government as the crisis in the Middle East threatens global oil supplies.Sources stressed that there is no shortage of fuel in the UK, but said that officials in the Department for Transport were working with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) on an analysis of what measures could be taken to curb oil demand. Continue reading...

Tania Warner and Ayla, her seven-year-old with autism, sent to notorious Texas detention center and told to self-deport'

Scientific advisory committee to examine impact of offering routine MenB jabs to wider range of people

Lawsuit alleges university violated civil rights of Jewish and Israeli people in aftermath of war in GazaThe Trump administration renewed its assault on Harvard University on Friday, filing a lawsuit in Massachusetts alleging the Ivy League institution violated the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli people in the aftermath of the war in Gaza.The lawsuit, shared publicly by the New York Times, accuses Harvard of allowing anti-Israel protesters to operate on campus with impunity" following the 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Gaza and Israel's massive military response. Continue reading...

Gwyn Samuels, who committed crimes as James Bubb, befriended both victims online befriended both victims onlineA Metropolitan police officer who raped a girl and a woman after systematically" grooming them both online has been jailed for 24 years.James Bubb, who now identifies as a woman named Gwyn Samuels, first sexually assaulted the girl when she was just 12 years old after befriending her online in 2018, the trial at Aylesbury crown court was told last year. Continue reading...

Three people were suing ex-Sinn Fein leader for liability over IRA bombings in UK that left them injuredThree victims of IRA bombings who sued Gerry Adams alleging he was a member of the paramilitary group and culpable for the attacks have withdrawn their lawsuit on the last day of the civil trial.John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock, who were injured respectively in the 1973 Old Bailey bombing and the 1996 London Docklands and Manchester bombings, were seeking symbolic vindicatory" damages of 1 each. Continue reading...

This blog is now closedSeverin Carrell is the Guardian's Scotland editor.Malcolm Offord, Reform UK's Scottish leader, has doubled down on his defence of the party's vetting by dismissing remarks by candidates backing Tommy Robinson or describing Humza Yousaf as an Islamist moron" (see 10.12am) as fruity language".It has taken a matter of hours for Reform Scotland's big launch to fall apart and their true colours to show.If Nigel Farage refuses to act and remove this candidate, Malcolm Offord must step up and show some leadership himself. This incident has confirmed once and for all how poisonous and chaotic Reform is and I have no doubt that Scots will send them packing.Again, as I say, this was done in a former life before she became a member of Reform. We've all said things in the past that may be intemperate... I am saying that we have to grow up on this and not take offence at every moment in time.I've been very clear that we have brought in a whole range of candidates, 80% of whom are not politicians. They're real people with real lives who said real things in a past life. Okay, this was said before she was a candidate. She wasn't even a member of the party at that time.And what we got in the situation is that in all our lives in the past, we've made comments that might sometimes be intemperate. But the issue with this modern world we live in is everything is now written down and remembered. I just think we have to be more, more realistic about the fact that real people say real things, and now she's a candidate, she will be held to a higher standard.Liberal Democrats urge the government to ensure the NCA or new National Police Service takes over investigations into serious waste crime. We also need an independent review of the entire waste crime system to crack down on organised gangs once and for all. New powers for the Environmental Agency simply won't cut it. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our European news coverage hereMeanwhile, French president Emmanuel Macron has confirmed the seizure of the tanker, which he said belonged to the Russian shadow fleet.In a strongly worded post on X, he said:The French navy boarded this morning in the Mediterranean a new vessel from the shadow fleet, the Deyna.The war in Iran will not divert France from its support for Ukraine, where Russia's war of aggression continues. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Chris Bryant says policy agreements are being done in bits and pieces but a greater vision is needed by both sidesIt was all smiles and warm handshakes when the two men in charge of renegotiating the UK's relationship with the EU met in Brussels this week.Maro efovi and the UK minister for EU relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, sharing a stage on the third floor of the vast European parliament building, were at pains to show the cross-Channel relationship was in a good place after years of rancour. Continue reading...

CBS News Radio to shutter after nearly 100 years as editor Bari Weiss tells staff cuts were necessary' decision

Late-night hosts panned Trump's joke about the 1941 attack, addressed new unredacted Epstein emails and talked popular puppy namesWith The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on hiatus until at least 27 March, late-night hosts on Thursday discussed Donald Trump's snafu while meeting Japan's prime minister, his caginess over Iran, and new findings in the Epstein investigations. Continue reading...

Stuart Niven found to have diverted Covid grants to personal account and other candidates' Islamophobic remarks revealed

HHS is looking into the states for alleged disregard of, or confusion about' the federal Weldon amendment

Moon orbit program, preceding planned landing in 2028, has been delayed due to fuel leaks and clogged helium linesFor the second time this year, Nasa moved its moon rocket from the hangar out toward the launchpad on Friday in hopes of sending four astronauts on a lunar fly-around next month.If the latest repairs work and everything else goes Nasa's way, the Space Launch System could blast off as early as 1 April from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The Artemis II crew went into quarantine this week in Houston in preparation for blastoff. Continue reading...

Palestinians say the move is part of a wider Israeli strategy to leverage security tensions to tighten restrictionsFor the first time since 1967, al-Aqsa mosque - Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site - was closed at the end of Ramadan on Friday, with tensions rising among Palestinians as Israeli authorities keep the complex shut, forcing worshippers to hold Eid prayers as close as they could to the sealed site.On Friday morning, hundreds of worshippers were forced to pray outside the Old City, as Israeli police barricaded the entrances to the site. Continue reading...

The right to protest is fundamentally American', says Bajun Mavalwalla who awaits trial and faces six years in prisonThis story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer CenterA US military veteran arrested on federal conspiracy charges after participating in a June 2025 protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told the Guardian he refuses to plead guilty and is ready to face justice. Continue reading...

Fusion of cherished American eateries hopes to revive brands that have gone hungry' while rest of industry feastsNo one could say the New York union of Applebee's and Ihop happened without fanfare.A car park in Hawthorne, 30 miles north of Manhattan, had been decked out with a 30ft-high inflatable red apple. Red, white and blue bunting flew from masts. Upbeat music blasted from speakers. Continue reading...

Deficit rises unexpectedly to 14.3bn in February as markets price in up to three interest rate rises in 2026