World news | The Guardian

Fico remains in intensive care but has emerged from immediate threat to his life', Robert Kaliak tells reportersSlovakia's prime minister, Robert Fico, is out of immediate danger but remains in intensive care four days after he was shot by a gunman, the country's deputy prime minister has said.He has emerged from the immediate threat to his life, but his condition remains serious and he requires intensive care," Robert Kaliak, Fico's closest political ally, told reporters. Continue reading...

Tribunal in London will hear claims Richard Branson's airline used Covid redundancies to target older staffHundreds of long-serving Virgin Atlantic cabin crew are suing the airline for unfair dismissal, claiming that the airline used Covid redundancies to target older staff.An employment tribunal in London will start examining more than 200 cases next month, at which former crew will argue that Sir Richard Branson's airline unfairly made them redundant while retaining cheaper new hires. Continue reading...

Company says it can offer much-needed choice' in bid to create direct competition for Avanti West CoastRichard Branson's Virgin Group hopes to make a comeback on Britain's railways - with plans for up to four new services on the West Coast main line it used to run.Virgin has submitted proposals to operate separate train services between London Euston and Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow Central respectively, on an open access basis. Continue reading...

Some borrowers have been abandoned in a cost-of-living crisis and lenders must meet their obligations, the regulator says

Emergency services called to report of 14-year-old and 13-year-old in river near bridge in OvinghamA 14-year-old boy has died and a 13-year-old boy is in a critical condition after getting into difficulty in the River Tyne in Northumberland, police have said.Police were called to the river at 3.30pm on Saturday after they received a report about two teenage boys in water near a bridge in Ovingham, a village east of Hexham. Continue reading...

The subversive work of Eliza Haywood, the feminist forerunner of the TV show's gossip columnist, is about to be republishedShe is the real-life Lady Whistledown, an eyebrow-raising female writer who penned a salacious anonymous gossip sheet that skewered 18th-century London society.Like the fictional pamphlet from Netflix hit Bridgerton, which returned for a third series last week, Eliza Haywood's The Parrot, published in 1746, has a distinctive, mocking voice that punches up and speaks truth to power". Now, a new book will republish Haywood's funny, subversive periodical, which she wrote from the perspective of an angry green parrot, and seek to raise awareness of her groundbreaking work. Continue reading...

Stephen Watson says process will be carried out fairly and impartially' in his most extensive public comments on the claimsThe chief constable of the police force examining claims against Angela Rayner has defended the decision to investigate the Labour party deputy leader, vowing it would be done fairly and impartially" and would establish whether culpability is proven or otherwise".Stephen Watson, who leads Greater Manchester police (GMP), gave his most extensive public comments so far on the investigation, which was triggered by a complaint from a senior Conservative. Continue reading...

New furnaces will be powered by electricity from 2027 but up to 2,800 workers will be made redundantTata Steel has reached a deal with the UK's electricity grid to start supplying the energy for new furnaces in south Wales from 2027, as the company moves ahead with its plan despite union opposition.The agreement with the National Grid's electricity supply operator (ESO), the company that controls how energy is moved around Great Britain, will provide hundreds of millions of megawatts of power to a new electric arc furnace at the steelworks in Port Talbot. Continue reading...

Hungarian police called to scene of accident on shore of the River Danube near VeroceHungarian police say two people have died and five are missing following a boat collision on the Danube.Hungarian police received a report late on Saturday night that a man had been found bleeding from his head on the shore of the river near the town of Veroce, about 30 miles (50km) north of the capital, Budapest. Continue reading...

Coventry MP, whose antipathy for David Cameron sparked her interest in politics, has largest TikTok following in parliamentWhen the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, sat in the BBC TV studio last Sunday morning, he clearly had no idea of the identity of the woman sitting on the panel opposite him, simply referring to her as the Labour MP".By contrast, Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, knows everything about Lord Cameron, telling the Guardian that it was her hatred of him as prime minister that first brought her into politics as a young, leftwing, Muslim woman. Her whole political outlook has been shaped by Cameron: the trebling of tuition fees and austerity. Continue reading...

Book prompts conflict over claims of Metis identity in eastern part of country where group doesn't have a homeland or deep historic tiesA graphic novel investigating Indigenous identity in Canada has prompted outrage from Metis groups, who say the book undermines their history and represents an attack on their sovereignty.The work is the result of a third-year history seminar at Dalhousie University, where students collaborated on a book examining thorny questions over ancestry and identity. Continue reading...

Shadow minister says it is Justin Welby's job to speak out but Labour could not commit to scrapping policyThe shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, has praised the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, for calling on Labour to scrap the two-child benefit cap, saying it was literally his job" to speak out on such matters.Streeting said he did not like the cap, which campaigners say has pushed hundreds of thousands of families into poverty, but that the party could not commit to ending it until it knew how this would be financed. Continue reading...

Anthony Olubunmi George, 61, has been refused leave to remain despite living most of his adult life in BritainA disabled man who has lived in the UK for 38 years has been threatened with removal from the UK by the Home Office.Anthony Olubunmi George, 61, came to the UK at the age of 24 in 1986 from Nigeria. He has not left the UK since and has no criminal convictions. In 2019, he had two strokes, which left him with problems with speech and mobility. Continue reading...

Cast member of Palme d'Or contender shot in Kent says the high number of chaperones and intimacy coordinators on set was over the topIs Britain leading the way in protecting young people and children from the potential traumas of working on a film set, or has it all gone far too far? Two of the most prominent European stars attending the Cannes film festival, both with high-profile premieres, have very different views.Franz Rogowski, the acclaimed German actor who plays a key role in Bird, British director Andrea Arnold's contender for the top Palme d'Or prize, said this weekend that the proliferation of chaperones and intimacy coordinators that had been required on the shoot on location in Kent qualified as well-intended madness". Continue reading...

Council spending cuts are forcing studios and venues to close, driving out the city's creative businessesLast year, the city of Leeds held a year-long celebration of culture, complete with festivals, newly commissioned works of art and community projects. More than 1,000 events took place, with hundreds of volunteers and local schools taking part.This year, however, artists and creatives in the West Yorkshire city are being forced out of their workshops and galleries, and say the dwindling number of spaces is crushing Leeds's creative scene. Continue reading...

Defence says it carries out random drug testing on an ongoing basis and investigations into Fitzgibbon's death continue

Heavy-handed' crackdown ignores underlying reasons for failure to attend classes, say criticsSome schools in England are sending police to the homes of children who are persistently absent, or warning them their parents may go to prison if their attendance doesn't improve, the Observer has learned.Headteachers say they are now under intense pressure from the government to turn around the crisis in attendance, with a record 150,000 children at state schools classed as severely absent in 2022-23. From September, all state schools in England will have to share their attendance records every day with the Department for Education. Continue reading...

Waiting lists are at a record high, almost double since 2020, with heart disease being the largest cause of premature death in deprived areasFifteen hospital trusts across England each have more than 200 patients waiting longer than a year for heart procedures, NHS figures reveal.The British Heart Foundation (BHF) warns that heart care waiting lists are now at a record high, reaching 414,596 at the end of March 2024 in England, almost double what it was in 2020. The number of people waiting longer than a year for heart tests and treatments has risen to 10,893. Four years ago, the figure was just 53. Continue reading...

Education secretary Gillian Keegan, Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron oppose move, while university leaders warn of economic and cultural impactRishi Sunak is facing a cabinet revolt over plans to scrap a graduate visa scheme that allows overseas students to live and work in the UK for up to two years after graduation.Under pressure from some on the right of his party to demonstrate that the Tories are tougher on immigration than Labour, Downing Street is considering further restricting or even ending the graduate scheme, which some believe can be used as a backdoor entry route to the UK. Continue reading...

Passengers were left abandoned and humiliated after operator banned staff from providing assistanceEurostar has reversed a new accessibility policy that left a wheelchair user stranded and has retrained its London staff following pressure from the Observer.Travellers with disabilities claimed that they would be barred from Eurostar services after the company banned its London staff from pushing passenger wheelchairs. Those who require assistance were told they must travel with a companion or cancel their ticket if they were unable to access services unaided, according to passengers who contacted the Observer. Continue reading...

Rail, Tram and Bus Union's Vik Sharma says Melbourne's lack of airport train line is a global embarrassment

La Trobe on Friday followed Deakin in issuing a formal directive for protesters to end their encampment

Paramedics treated an officer for non-life-threatening head injuries and police said there was no ongoing threat to the public

Prosecution of three high-ranking Syrian officials to be tried in absentia could pave way for president's caseAt midnight on 3 November 2013, five Syrian officials dragged arts and humanities student Patrick Dabbagh from his home in the Mezzeh district of Damascus.The following day, at the same hour, the same men, including a representative of the Syrian air force's intelligence unit, returned with a dozen soldiers to arrest the 20-year-old's father Mazzen. Continue reading...

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Benny Gantz's threat to withdraw his opposition party from coalition calls into question future of governmentThe Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has threatened to resign if Benjamin Netanyahu fails to adopt an agreed plan for Gaza, calling into question the future of the Israeli government.During a press conference on Saturday, Gantz announced that if a plan for postwar governance of the territory is not consolidated and approved by 8 June, his opposition National Unity party will withdraw from the coalition government. Continue reading...

In latest Opinium poll, only 16% say accepting rightwing Tory MP's defection was the right move - against 33% who see it as a mistakeMore voters believe Keir Starmer was wrong to allow a rightwing Tory MP into Labour than think it was the right move, after anger from within the party's ranks over the defection.Natalie Elphicke, the Dover MP, said the Tories had become a byword for incompetence and division" when she made her shock departure to Labour earlier in May. The party leadership regarded it as a major coup to win the support of the MP on the frontline of the Channel crossings issue that Rishi Sunak has attempted to prioritise. The move came despite concerns among MPs that her views conflict with Labour in a variety of areas. Continue reading...

As the inquiry publishes it final report, the chancellor is under pressure to find 10bn to put right a longstanding injusticeThe chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, will come under pressure to stay true to his word and sign off on immediate compensation payments totalling up to 10bn to victims of the contaminated blood scandal when the long-awaited final report on the affair is published on Monday.The scandal is described as the worst treatment disaster in NHS history, with more than 3,000 people having died as a result of receiving contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. It is estimated that, even today, a person infected during the scandal dies every four days. Continue reading...

IDF says senior terrorist operative' Islam Khamayseh was killed in strike on the city of JeninIsrael says its jets have struck 70 targets across Gaza in the past 24 hours, while an airstrike in Jenin killed a significant" Islamic Jihad figure who operated as the head of logistics for the organisation's brigade in the city.The strike, carried out on Friday night by a fighter jet and a helicopter, killed Islam Khamayseh, a senior terrorist operative in the Jenin camp" who was responsible for a series of attacks in the area, the IDF said. Continue reading...

Head of Church of England Justin Welby tells Observer that ending policy would lift thousands of UK children out of poverty

Media is barred from hearing as 71-year-old man appears in closed session over attempted assassination of prime ministerThe suspect in the shooting of Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico appeared in a closed court hearing on Saturday outside Bratislava amid growing fears about the future of the deeply divided nation.The media was barred from the hearing, and reporters were kept behind a gate by armed police officers wearing balaclavas. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Israel-Gaza war coverage hereIsrael on Friday attacked South Africa's case against it in the international court of justice as an obscene exploitation" of the genocide convention, claiming it aimed not to protect Palestinian civilians but to defend Hamas militants.Israel's representatives told the court their country was fighting a war of self-defence it did not want and did not start". They said Israel had made extraordinary" efforts to protect civilians, and had complied with orders from the court to let more aid into Gaza. Continue reading...

Locals hope TV adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude will bring new life to Aracataca, birthplace of author's magical realismIn sweltering mid-afternoon heat, children splash in the clear water of the canal that threads through town as elderly neighbours look on from rocking chairs on the porches of their sun-washed houses. Butterflies spring from every bush, sometimes fluttering together in kaleidoscopes.At the foot of Colombia's Sierra Nevada mountains, about 20 miles from the Caribbean coast, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's fictional world of Macondo lives on. Continue reading...

Myrteza Hilaj and Kreshnik Kadena convicted after NCA operation into Albanian crime group involved in illegal migrationTwo men who used a plane to smuggle people from northern France to an aerodrome in Essex have been jailed.Myrteza Hilaj and Kreshnik Kadena, both from Leyton in east London, were found guilty at Southwark crown court in March of facilitating the commission of a breach of immigration law. Continue reading...

When on holiday in Berwick the artist often gave his work away. Now a new exhibition reveals the value of drawings that survived in a shoeboxA 1958 drawing of a family with their dogs by LS Lowry from one of his many holidays in Berwick-upon-Tweed is to go on public display for the first time. But the sketch is lucky to have survived: it was kept in a shoe box for 43 years, emerging somewhat creased because its recipient had little idea of Lowry's significance.The signed and dated drawing on headed notepaper from the Castle Hotel, where the artist stayed for most summers from the 1930s until the 1970s, was given to hotel receptionist, Anne Mather. I didn't think much about it, and only after he died did I remember it," Mather told the Berwick Advertiser in 2001 when she put the sketch up for auction. He was quiet and reclusive, but I can still visualise him in the lounge. He would sit and doodle, with his glasses at the end of his nose." Continue reading...

Nelson Shardey, 74, became tearful on hearing of support for effort to gain settled status after 50 years in UKA retired 74-year-old newsagent who has lived in the UK for nearly 50 years said tears were running" from his eyes after strangers fundraised more than 30,000 to support his legal fight to remain in the country.Nelson Shardey, who has been described as a Merseyside local legend", is pursuing a legal challenge against the Home Office after he was refused indefinite leave to remain, despite living and working in the UK since 1977. Continue reading...

Victoria Atkins says she has asked officials to look into claims doctors and nurses who have spoken up were mistreatedThe NHS must listen to whistleblowers and investigate their concerns in the interests of patient safety, the health secretary has said.Victoria Atkins said she had asked officials to look into cases where there were claims of mistreatment of people who had spoken up about the issues they had experienced. Continue reading...

New York actor was taken to hospital after a stranger punched him in the face while he was walking in Manhattan on 8 MayA man wanted in connection with the random attack on actor Steve Buscemi on a New York City street earlier this month was arrested on an assault charge on Friday, police said.The 66-year-old star of Boardwalk Empire and Fargo was walking in midtown Manhattan on 8 May when a stranger punched him in the face, city police said. He was taken to a hospital with bruising, swelling and bleeding to his left eye, but was otherwise OK, his publicist said at the time. Continue reading...

With thousands now held without charge, lawyers say Israel is

Researcher uncovers vast Facebook campaign and accuses Meta of lack of willingness' to counter itThe stories are doom-laden, laced with vitriolic sneers about Emmanuel Macron, Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Ursula von der Leyen. Ukrainians are ready to depose" their leader, Macron is breaking French rules" with aid to Ukraine, an uncontrolled influx" from the east is seriously harming the Germans".According to new research, these are just a few examples of a vast pro-Russian propaganda campaign washing over Facebook accounts of French and German citizens, before the European parliament elections next month. Continue reading...

Six motions calling for end to Israel-Gaza conflict carried after Jacinta Allan says she is disgusted' by behaviour of protesters at Labor state conference

Campaigners say move to electronic permits by end of the year is a recipe for disaster' that could leave immigrants without proof of statusLawyers and migrant rights campaigners have warned that the government is heading for a repeat of the Windrush scandal after imposing a cliff edge" deadline for immigrants to switch to new digital visas.By the end of this year an estimated 500,000 or more non-EU immigrants with leave to remain in the UK will need to replace their physical biometric residence permits (BRPs) - which demonstrate proof of their right to reside, rent, work and claim benefits - with digital e-visas. Continue reading...

Gender stereotypes at home may hamper female students' ability to progress in the classroom, research suggestsParents are more likely to overestimate maths ability in sons than daughters, according to research that suggests that gender stereotypes at home may hinder the progress of female students.The findings, presented in a lecture at University College London this week, found that parents tend to be overconfident about their children's academic performance in reading and maths regardless of gender. But, in maths, parents overestimated boys' skills to a significantly greater extent. Continue reading...

There was more business than usual and some bemused regulars after El Califa de Leon was rewarded for its exceptional' offeringEl Califa de Leon, an unassuming taco joint in Mexico City, measures just 3 metres by 3 metres and has space for only about six people to stand at a squeeze. Locals usually wait for 5 minutes between ordering and picking up their food.All that changed on Wednesday, however, when it became the first Mexican taco stand ever to win a Michelin star, putting it in the exalted company of fine dining restaurants around the world, and drawing crowds like it has never seen. Continue reading...

Previous 25,000 maximum no longer enough to fund some home improvements, says building societyNationwide building society has doubled the maximum personal loan it will offer borrowers to 50,000, citing the continued increase in building costs as the reason for the change.The society previously offered up to 25,000 for qualifying customers but said this was no longer enough to fund some home improvement projects. Continue reading...

The blood friends' swap stories and medical advice to help one another feel unburdened by their experiencesVictims of the infected blood inquiry are joining forces to share stories and support.Sue Wathen, Joan Edgington and Nicola Leahey were diagnosed with hepatitis C after struggling through years of unexplained symptoms that were dismissed by doctors. Continue reading...

Eight-year-olds' video, which racked up 14m views, hits a sore point for mobilers who have struggled with the cost of livingLike the totemic 8 pint or 5 coffee, the cost of a Mr Whippy ice-cream has become a barometer of a world gone mad. But really, nine quid for two ice-creams? Bloody hell.That was the damning verdict of an eight-year-old whose TikTok rant over the cost of two screwballs from an ice cream van in the park has racked up 14m views at the time of writing. Continue reading...

Jacinta Allan proposes stronger penalties for people who assault, threaten or intimidate retail, hospitality, and other workers

Boy charged after an alleged fight ended in a man being stabbed multiple times in Acacia Ridge

Hotel surveillance cameras at InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles captured incident Combs had vehemently deniedA newly released video shows Sean Diddy" Combs manhandling and kicking singer Cassie Ventura - his former girlfriend - in plain view of hotel surveillance cameras in 2016, before the rapper, music producer and businessman rapidly settled a lawsuit that she brought against him this past November, according to footage exclusively obtained by CNN.The video in question illustrates in the most graphic nature possible one of the beatings alleged and described in Ventura's lawsuit, which Combs had vehemently denied. Continue reading...