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Judge in case brought by Prince Harry notes that some journalists happy to comment on sidelinesThe judge presiding over the privacy case brought by Prince Harry and others has questioned why journalists including Piers Morgan have not appeared to give evidence, noting that some have been happy to commentate on the case from the sidelines in recent weeks.During Tuesday's hearing, Mr Justice Fancourt listed the names of more than two dozen people he felt could have been brought before him, in no particular order", in the case against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN); the publisher of the Daily and Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Comedian among stars who publicly withdrew from British LGBT Awards after climate campaigners warned of sponsorship deals with oil giantsJoe Lycett has pulled out of the British LGBT Awards after climate campaigners said they would protest outside over its sponsorship deals with Shell and BP.The comedian, who was nominated for his shredding" of 10,000 in protest at David Beckham's ambassadorship for the Qatar World Cup, joins a host of other stars who have publicly withdrawn from the event over its fossil fuel links. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Yilin Wang claims she did not receive any credit for translations of Qiu Jin's work in the China's Hidden Century exhibitionThe British Museum is removing a segment of its landmark exhibition on China after a writer alleged that her translations of a Chinese revolutionary's poetry had been plagiarised".Yilin Wang, an award-winning translator, poet and editor who lives in Vancouver, said she did not receive any credit or reimbursement for translations of Qiu Jin's work that she claims are hers. They appeared in the exhibition and catalogue of the museum's China's Hidden Century exhibition. Continue reading...

Evidence submitted by former chancellor claims austerity had positive' effect on UK's ability to withstand Covid pandemicGeorge Osborne, chancellor from 2010 until 2016, is giving evidence to the Covid inquiry now.He starts by saying he wants to express his heartfelt sympathy to all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic. He says he hopes the inquiry gets to the heart of what happened.My great regret about not having focused on pandemic flu, because I was told it was being well looked after, is not actually about pandemic flu.But that it might have occurred to me if I had focused on that, that despite all the scientists had concluded, and no doubt they were right, that there was a very tiny probability by comparison with the probability of pandemic flu, of some other catastrophic pathogen ...Actually it is absolutely not an excuse for a minister, alas, because you can always ask the following question, you don't have to accept the advice.That is actually what I should've done and it's a matter of lasting regret that I didn't. Continue reading...

Use of US- and UK-supplied missiles would mark west's full involvement', Russian defence minister says

Twenty-six stadiums will host the pop star, including four nights at Wembley, following huge success in the US leg of the career-spanning tourTaylor Swift's Eras tour, whose three-hour, career-spanning shows have made it a huge critical and commercial success in the US, is to arrive in the UK and Europe.The tour encompasses 26 stadium dates, beginning 9 May 2024 in Paris, followed by gigs in Stockholm, Madrid, Lisbon and Lyon. Continue reading...

Tufan Erginbilgic says move may take a decade until next generation of single-aisle planes are producedRolls-Royce's new boss has said the British company is ready to rejoin the market for smaller jet engines once manufacturers build a new generation of planes.Tufan Erginbilgic told reporters at the Paris air show on Tuesday that the company was actually ready" to re-enter the market for engines for single-aisle jets, although it would probably take a decade for a new opportunity to come up. Continue reading...

Israeli security forces say gunman was shot and search for other attackers continues after incident near settlement of EliA Palestinian attacker has opened fire at a gas station near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, killing at least four people and wounding several others, Israeli medics have said, as violence continued to roil the occupied territory.Israeli security forces said they shot the gunman and were still searching for other attackers near the settlement of Eli north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Palestinian media reported that the attacker's driver had fled the scene. Continue reading...

Company wrongly paid executive bonuses for cooperation with inquiry into faulty computer systemThe boss of the Post Office has apologised for receiving bonus payments related to an inquiry into a long-running miscarriage of justice, and said hundreds of postmasters had found it too traumatising" to come forward to challenge their convictions.The company is being investigated by the government after the Post Office admitted it had wrongly paid thousands of pounds of bonuses to top executives simply for cooperating with an inquiry into the Post Office's faulty Horizon computer system. Continue reading...

Education bill to require two-thirds of content for standard bachelor's degrees to be in DutchAs Britain voted to leave the EU, Dutch universities began offering more courses in English and foreigners streamed in.But with 122,287 international students in higher education in the Netherlands - 15% of all the country's students - now the government is proposing a cap on the number of students from outside the European Economic Area in some subjects and forcing universities to offer at least two-thirds of the content of standard bachelor's degrees in Dutch, unless a university justifies an exemption. Continue reading...

Storm approaching eastern Caribbean Leeward and Windward Islands in aggressive weather pattern early in the seasonTropical Storm Bret is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane as it approaches the eastern Caribbean's Leeward and Windward islands, with meteorologists noting that the weather pattern is unusually early and aggressive for the Atlantic cyclone season that formally began on 1 June.It is only the second hurricane to form in the tropical Atlantic in June since record keeping began, according to forecasters. The previous June hurricane was the 1933 Trinidad hurricane. Continue reading...

Special minister of state Don Farrell says the government will consider unintended consequences of proposed laws

Nurse believed she could do whatever she wanted' when she murdered two triplets and attacked third baby, jury toldLucy Letby was completely out of control" and playing God" when she murdered two triplets and attacked a third baby on her return from a holiday in Ibiza, a court has heard.Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said the nurse, 33, had got away with so much" at that point it gave her the misplaced confidence that she could pretty much do whatever she wanted" at the Countess of Chester hospital's neonatal unit. Continue reading...

Hundreds of redundancies expected as Axel Springer tells staff certain roles will no longer exist as they do today'Germany's Bild tabloid, the biggest-selling newspaper in Europe, is to replace a range of editorial jobs with artificial intelligence as part of a 100m costcutting programme expected to lead to hundreds of redundancies.The newspaper would unfortunately be parting ways with colleagues who have tasks that in the digital world are performed by AI and/or automated processes", its owner, Europe's largest media publisher, Axel Springer SE, said in an email to staff. Continue reading...

Executive who jumped bail in Japan and escaped to Beirut has filed claim in Lebanese courtCarlos Ghosn, the disgraced former Nissan executive who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon, has filed a $1bn lawsuit against his former employer.Ghosn, the mastermind of a carmaking alliance with Renault that also later involved Mitsubishi Motors, was detained in Japan in November 2018 amid allegations of financial misconduct involving a plot to deliberately underreport his remuneration. Continue reading...

Sale adds to flurry of investments by owner of Sports Direct, including in Currys, AO and AsosMike Ashley's Frasers Group has bought a 22m stake in the fashion group Boohoo as the high street retail tycoon makes a flurry of investments in online retail.The group, which owns Sports Direct and the designer fashion retailer Flannels, added the 5% stake in Boohoo on Monday shortly after announcing it had built a 9% stake in the electrical goods retailer Currys in the past week. Ashley has a long history of snapping up ailing brands, from House of Fraser to Everlast. Continue reading...

Lowy Institute poll shows more than 60% see a US-China conflict over Taiwan as a critical threat but most believe Australia should remain neutral if it occurs

Refusal to express opinion fuels belief PM is scared to upset remaining Johnson supporters

After a major drive at the weekend search efforts for the actor, who went missing in January, are being reduced to a limited capacity' say Californian authoritiesEfforts to locate the actor Julian Sands, more than five months after he went missing while hiking in California, are to be scaled back, the San Bernardino county sheriff's office has reported.In a statement on Monday, the department said the missing person case for Sands remains open and that search efforts will continue in a limited capacity". Continue reading...

French national financial prosecutor's office ordered search of organising committee's base, according to sourceThe headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics organising committee and those of its infrastructure partner were being searched by police on Tuesday as part of investigations into alleged embezzlement of public funds and favouritism, prosecutors said.The national financial prosecutor's office (PNF) said the Paris 2024 headquarters were raided as part of a preliminary investigation launched in 2017 into contracts made by the summer Games's organising committee. Continue reading...

Oliver Letwin, who led emergency planning during coalition, says churn of ministers and officials is disaster for country'Britain's whole system of critical national infrastructure remains wildly under-resilient," the Covid-19 inquiry has been told by Oliver Letwin, who was responsible for emergency planning in the coalition government.It was also an error" that no government had appointed a senior minister with sole responsibility over planning for pandemics and other areas of resilience, the former minister said. He described the churn of ministers and officials tasked with preparing for emergencies as a disaster for the country". Continue reading...

Social media influencer and three others face charges of rape, human trafficking and forming an organised crime groupRomanian prosecutors have sent the controversial influencer Andrew Tate, his brother Tristan and two other suspects to trial on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.The Tate brothers and two Romanian female suspects are under house arrest pending a criminal investigation of alleged abuses committed against seven women, accusations they have denied. Continue reading...

Minister for Indigenous Australians stresses that voice will concern itself with matters affecting First Nations communities

Accreditation fee for journalists criticised in letter from nearly 300 news organisations worldwideThe Conservative party has accused by news organisations from around the world of setting a dangerous precedent" internationally after it introduced a change to report on its annual conference.The criticism came in a letter signed by nearly 300 news organisations, including the Society of Editors, Foreign Press Association (FPA), News Media Association, Reporters Without Borders and the European Association of News Agencies. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Charities and civil groups say FO pursued an over-optimistic agenda of democracy first' in SudanThe UK Foreign Office has been accused of ignoring repeated warnings from Sudanese groups and western experts that Sudan was teetering on the brink of a conflict that would lead to mass atrocities and identity-based crimes.Sudan has been gripped by violence since two rival generals went to war against each other in April. The Commons foreign affairs select committee is conducting an inquiry into Whitehall's anticipation of the crisis and the level of support provided to British citizens trapped in Sudan. Continue reading...

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, president of temple in British Columbia, found fatally injured in car parkA campaigner for a Sikh nation to be carved out of India's Punjab state who was wanted by Indian authorities has been shot dead in Canada, police have said.Federal police said a man was found in his pickup truck in the car park of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in Surrey, British Columbia, at about 8.30pm on Sunday, with apparent gunshot wounds. Continue reading...

Minns government asks taskforce to examine enforcement of laws but experts say making drivers legally responsible will be difficult

Immersive show includes talk by late singer's designer Bob Mackie as well as items worn by Prince and Elton John

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Video appears to show Tory workers dancing at jingle and mingle' event during Bailey's London mayoral bidPressure is growing on the former Tory London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey not to accept the peerage offered to him by Boris Johnson, as a senior Conservative MP said he should consider his position".Tobias Ellwood said there were big questions" around the peerage after a video surfaced appearing to show Tory party workers drinking alcohol and dancing on 14 December 2020, at a mid-lockdown gathering held by the campaign team involved in Bailey's unsuccessful mayoral bid. Continue reading...

Launch comes amid resurgent demand for air travel after end of Covid lockdownsAs the deafening roar of an F35 fighter jet washes over the Paris air show, Tony Douglas allows himself a moment of nostalgia: he was formerly responsible for the UK government agency charged with buying the planes.Now he is in charge of a different aviation proposition, leading the launch of a new commercial airline belonging to the Saudi Arabian state. Continue reading...

Sydney's minimum temperature dropped to 1.8C and Canberra's to -5.6C as Bureau of Meteorology predicts the cold to linger

Victorian premier says his comment in parliament was in defence of Labor MP Kat Theophanous

The $188m eight-part series was to be filmed in Melbourne but has been shelved because of push costs and uncertainty'The $188m Apple TV+ remake of Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi classic Metropolis has been cancelled.The major project was in pre-production in Melbourne when NBCUniversal's Universal Studio Group announced the eight-part series would not go ahead. Continue reading...

National Disability Insurance Agency seeking information after 1.1TB of law firm's data was posted to dark web this month

Nevertheless, Labor has confirmed it is deferring a decision on an increase to the sales tax on the Star casino group

Gay hate crime inquiry hears items of Crispin Dye's clothing were not forensically analysed after he was attacked in Sydney in 1993

In today's newsletter: The special unit meant to reform the Home Office is to be closed - leaving many to wonder what comes next

Queen's funeral credited for hymns' revival while Time to Say Goodbye replaces You'll Never Walk Alone at No 1Hymns are back among the most popular funeral songs, boosted by the queen's funeral, while the Monty Python song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life has slipped out of the top 10, funeral directors have said.All Things Bright and Beautiful and Abide With Me are the first hymns in the top 10 for seven years, in the Co-op Funeralcare chart based on song selections at about 93,000 funerals. Continue reading...

Some patients' cancer became incurable as a direct result of long waits, says Macmillan Cancer SupportAt least 100,000 people across the UK have had their lives put at risk over the last decade because of delays to them getting tested or treated for cancer, a new report claims.In some cases, patients' treatment options narrowed or their cancer spread or became incurable as a direct result of their long waits for NHS care, according to Macmillan Cancer Support. Continue reading...

Historic and contemporary pieces interrogate city and university's connections to colonialismAn exhibition by the Fitzwilliam Museum will explore Cambridge's connections to enslavement and exploitation for the first time, both in the university and the city.Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance features works made in west Africa, the Caribbean, South America and Europe, and interrogates the ways Atlantic enslavement and the Black Atlantic shaped the University of Cambridge's collections. Continue reading...

Lambie tells Senate the Brereton report gave senior commanders a free pass' while soldiers were thrown under the bus'

Exclusive: Ukrainian mayor says there is no time to waste in drawing up vision for devastated city, which is under Russian controlA tram glides pasts cyclists and pedestrians making their way along green and pleasant streets. A submerged diver swims in clear waters by an underwater research centre while families enjoy a picnic at the nearby beach, gazing over at the yachts in the distance as they enjoy the afternoon sun.It is a vision of a thoroughly modern coastal city, but two strangely familiar images in the bundle of architectural drawings hint at the identity of this place and its dark and troubling recent past: there is the Memory Centre Dram", an amphitheatre overlooked by a towering steel and glass structure in the shape of what was Mariupol's elegant drama theatre, and then, on the following page, an industrial works given over to nature, now described as the Azovstal memorial park. Continue reading...

German Marshall Fund says oligarchs biding their time until after war ends to reassert their influence

The 62-year-old ballet dancer and author of bestselling memoir Mao's Last Dancer is retiring after 11-years as artistic director, having been diagnosed with a heart conditionLi Cunxin, the renowned ballet dancer and author of bestselling memoir Mao's Last Dancer, is retiring as the artistic director of Queensland Ballet due to ill health.On Tuesday, the Queensland Ballet confirmed the 62-year-old had been diagnosed with a heart condition and has been troubled by serious health concerns since 2022". He recently experienced complications" and is retiring in order to recuperate. Continue reading...

Victorian premier says families of those killed by Paul Denyer should have been treated better when he sought parole

French expert and British explorer believed to be among five onboard submersible missing in north Atlantic since Sunday

Minutes from RBA meeting on 6 June show the board was concerned about the considerable uncertainty regarding the outlook for household spending'

Queensland police alerted to man who suspended himself over Port of Brisbane Road, blocking all eastbound lanes

Singer says he will no longer do residencies in the US, describing recent changes in law as disgraceful'Gay rights are going backwards in the US, where disgraceful" laws are discriminating against LGBTQ+ people, Elton John has said.The singer said he would no longer do residencies in the US, though he would consider more live shows elsewhere. Continue reading...