Refreshing northerly airmass to bring abrupt end to extreme heat, offering respite for residents and firefightersAfter enduring a relentless stretch of searing temperatures, relief is finally in sight for south-east Europe. The Balkans, which have been scorched by a brutal heatwave over recent weeks, have seen daily maximum temperatures soar, culminating in a peak on Saturday with widespread temperatures of 40C (104F) and above across Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria and neighbouring regions.Turkey also suffered, with a scorching 50.5C (122.9F) recorded in Silopi on Friday, the country's all-time highest maximum temperature. Now these places are set to experience a dramatic cooldown as a refreshing northerly airmass is moving in, bringing an abrupt end to the extreme heat and offering much-needed respite. Continue reading...
by Anne Davies NSW state correspondent on (#6YY4D)
Major parties mulling options ahead of state parliament returning next week. Ward, the MP for Kiama, has yet to reveal if he will appeal Friday's verdicts
by Hannah Al-Othman North of England correspondent on (#6YY4F)
Samuel Rowe, who was returning from allotment, seeking to overturn caution for possession of offensive weaponA man who had returned home from his allotment with a trug of vegetables and gardening tools strapped to his belt was arrested by armed police, after a member of the public said they had seen a man wearing khaki clothing and in possession of a knife".Samuel Rowe, 35, who works as a technical manager at a theatre, had come back from his allotment in Manchester earlier this month and decided to trim his hedge with one of his tools, a Japanese garden sickle, when police turned up on his doorstep. Continue reading...
Analysis finds swift release of information helps to debunk inflammatory falsehoods on social mediaDebunking" efforts involving police forces, community leaders and local councillors should be deployed to counter misinformation in the wake of serious incidents such as the Southport murders, according to a new analysis.Trust in the UK government and law enforcement is so low that attempts to curb online falsehoods need to be backed up by other sources, said experts at the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security (Cetas). Continue reading...
Exclusive: Lobbyists meet with ministers, and host a darts night with Labour advisers and MPs' staffGambling lobbyists are staging a summer charm offensive designed to stop ministers from raising taxes on the sector, the Guardian has learned, including meeting with Treasury insiders and hosting a darts evening with Labour special advisers and MPs' staff.The Treasury is considering whether to simplify the various rates of duty applied to gambling products, a measure that the 11.5bn-a-year sector fears would increase its overall tax bill. Continue reading...
by Robyn Vinter North of England correspondent on (#6YY3R)
Joe Outlaw, who climbed on to a prison roof, is using the mental toll of indeterminate detention as a legal defenceThe trial of an alleged escapee who spent hours on the roof of a high-security prison in his underpants is set to be the first time the stress caused by indeterminate sentences can be used as a legal defence.Joe Outlaw is due to stand trial on Monday for climbing on to the roof of HMP Frankland in Durham in June 2023 in protest at the imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence he and others are serving. Continue reading...
Judith Collins also said the controversial electoral law reform could disenfranchise MoriNew Zealand's prime minister Christopher Luxon has defended his government's plans to overhaul its electoral laws, despite warnings from his own attorney general the changes could breach human rights law and disenfranchise more than 100,000 voters.The right-wing government last week announced its plan to shake up electoral laws it said were outdated and unsustainable", including closing voter enrolment 13 days before election day, reinstating a total ban on prisoner voting and prohibiting anyone from providing free food, drink or entertainment within 100 metres of a voting station. Continue reading...
The celebrity croc wrangler was charged with three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice after 2022 crashThe Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright has pleaded not guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice more than three years after a fatal helicopter crash.The celebrity crocodile wrangler was charged after the crash that killed his co-star Chris Willow" Wilson in February 2022. Continue reading...
by Presented by Lucy Hough with Hannah Ellis-Petersen on (#6YY2Q)
The Guardian's south Asia correspondent, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, and the Tibet activist Lhadon Tethong discuss the battle between Buddhist monks and the Chinese state over the successor to the Dalai LamaBefore long, Tibetan Buddhism will enter an unknown world - one without its current Dalai Lama. He has been the leader since he was chosen as a toddler more than 80 years ago. But the Dalai Lama is now 90, and talking openly about the process to pick his successor.Much has changed, however, since he was discovered by senior Buddhist monks in a village in north-west Tibet in 1937. Most pertinently, the Chinese invasion of Tibet in the 1950s and the subsequent exile of the region's Buddhist leadership to India in the decades since. Continue reading...
The Moscow-Pyongyang flights operated by Russia's Nordwind Airlines will initially operate only once a monthDirect flights from Moscow to North Korea have begun this week, amid a strengthening of ties between the two nations and a decline in options for Russian tourists travelling abroad.The first Moscow-Pyongyang flight, operated by Russia's Nordwind Airlines, took off on Sunday, according to the Sheremetyevo airport's website, and landed in the North Korean capital about eight hours later. Continue reading...
Prime ministers of two countries to attend talks in Malaysia on Monday, following Trump threat on Saturday to pause trade deals unless fighting stoppedDonald Trump has said he believed both Thailand and Cambodia wanted to settle their differences after he told the leaders of both countries that he would not conclude trade deals with them unless they ended their fighting.On Monday, Thai and Cambodian leaders will meet in Malaysia for talks to end hostilities, a spokesperson for the Thai prime minister's office said on Sunday. The deadly border dispute, now in its fourth day, has killed at least 35 people and displaced more than 218,000. Continue reading...
A child prodigy in mathematics who graduated Harvard at just 19, his darkly prophetic and cynical show tunes won him a cult following in the 50s and 60sTom Lehrer, the acclaimed humorist and pianist whose satirical songs made him one of America's favorite prophets of doom before he retreated to academia, has died, US media reported on Sunday. He was 97.The singer-songwriter died on Saturday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his friend David Herder said, according to the New York Times. Continue reading...
by Richard Partington Senior economics correspondent on (#6YY0Z)
Lords doing bidding of bad bosses', says TUC, amid growing campaign by business leaders to water down Labour's plansConservative and Liberal Democrat peers have been accused of trying to block stronger rights for millions of workers amid a growing campaign by business leaders to water down Labour's zero-hours contract plans.In a blow for the government, the Lords last week voted to curtail the manifesto promise to give workers a right to a guaranteed hours contract and day-one protections against unfair dismissal. Continue reading...
Regional passenger train carrying about 100 people derails near Riedlingen, leaving more people seriously injuredThree people were killed and several others injured when a regional passenger train derailed in a wooded area in southwestern Germany on Sunday, police said.About 100 passengers were onboard the train when the accident occurred at about 6.10 pm local time near the town of Riedlingen in Baden-Wuerttemberg state. Continue reading...
Regional passenger train carrying about 100 people derails near Riedlingen, leaving more people seriously injuredThree people were killed and several others injured when a regional passenger train derailed in a wooded area in southwestern Germany on Sunday, police said.About 100 passengers were onboard the train when the accident occurred at about 6.10 pm local time near the town of Riedlingen in Baden-Wuerttemberg state. Continue reading...
Prime minister expected to press Donald Trump to take tougher stance towards Israel when they meet in ScotlandKeir Starmer will recall his cabinet from their summer break for an emergency meeting on the Gaza crisis this week as cross-party MPs warned his talks with Donald Trump provided a critical juncture in helping to resolve the conflict.Amid growing international horror over the situation on the ground in Gaza, he will urge the US president to take a tougher stance towards Israel and will push for ceasefire talks to resume, when they meet in Scotland on Monday. Continue reading...
Protests at Bell hotel in Epping for fifth time on Sunday as others demonstrated in Norfolk and LondonHundreds of people gathered outside a hotel in Epping on Sunday for the fifth time to demonstrate over the premises being used to house asylum seekers, as protests spread to other hotels over the weekend.A large police presence containing officers from multiple forces restricted contact between anti- and pro-immigrant protesters, with Essex police saying restrictions were necessary after what it described as repeated serious disruption, violence and harm to the community since the first demonstration took place on 13 July. Continue reading...
by Hayden Vernon (now); Yohannes Lowe and staff and a on (#6YXNN)
WHO calls for urgent, sustained efforts to flood the Gaza Strip with food after Israeli military announces pause in activityAt least 13 Palestinians, including two children, have been killed this morning after Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza, medical sources have told Wafa, the Palestinian news agency.Wafa reports that six civilians were killed near an aid distribution centre to the southwest of Khan Younis, six more Palestinians were killed near an aid distribution center on the outskirts of Rafah and one other person was killed in a similar attack in central Gaza. We have not yet been able to indepdnently verifiy this information. Continue reading...
PM will be hoping to convince Trump to push Netanyahu to revive peace talks when UK and US leaders meet on MondayMoments after Air Force One touched down at Prestwick on Friday for a trip in which politics will take as big a billing as golf, Donald Trump was asked about his relationship with Keir Starmer.I like your prime minister. He's slightly more liberal than I am, as you've probably heard. But he's a good man," the US president told reporters. At a time when the UK wants Trump's ear on numerous weighty issues, his response to questions about the special relationship" will have given Downing Street some reassurance. Continue reading...
by Malak A Tantesh in Gaza and William Christou in Je on (#6YXRB)
Israeli military says 10-hour tactical pauses' in certain areas will allow increase in flow of aid to territoryPalestinians in Gaza have reacted with wariness after Israel began a limited, daily pause in fighting in three populated areas of Gaza to allow what Benjamin Netanyahu described as a minimal" amount of aid into the territory.Scores of Palestinians have died of starvation in recent weeks in a crisis attributed by humanitarian organisations and the UN to Israel's blockade of almost all aid into the territory. The World Food Programme (WFP) said 90,000 women and children were in urgent need of treatment for malnutrition and that one in three people were going without food for days. Continue reading...
BMA chiefs overruled their negotiators because pay demands were not met, sources sayWes Streeting thought he had struck a deal with resident doctors to stop a five-day strike in England, only for the British Medical Association to then reject it, sources have claimed.The health secretary believed he had secured a verbal agreement with the co-chairs of the BMA's resident doctors committee for a deal that involved progress on tackling five non-pay issues. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#6YXX7)
Department says no redundancies as a result but sources believe jobs will go in push to cut posts and overhaul railwaysHundreds of civil servants are being transferred from the Department for Transport to the state-owned rail operator as the government looks to cut Whitehall posts and overhaul the railways.Ministers have been pushing to find savings from across the civil service, but a government spokesperson denied there would be immediate redundancies in what bosses told staff was a critical phase" of the creation of Great British Railways (GBR). Continue reading...
Czech firefighters and Italian aircraft join rescue effort in Greece, and firefighter among those killed in TurkeyThousands of people in Greece and Turkey have been forced to evacuate homes as firefighters in the countries battled to contain wildfires fanned by strong winds and searing heat.As temperatures in south-eastern Europe exceeded 40C for a seventh straight day, the Greek prime minister praised rescue workers for waging a titanic battle" to bring blazes under control. Continue reading...
by Rebecca Ratcliffe in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand on (#6YX6X)
Both sides launch fresh attacks but Thai and Cambodian leaders said to be meeting in Malaysia on Monday for talksThai and Cambodian leaders will meet in Malaysia on Monday for talks to end hostilities, a spokesperson for the Thai prime minister's office said, after pressure from the US president, Donald Trump, to end a deadly border dispute, now in its fourth day.Jirayu Huangsap said the acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, would attend Monday's talks in response to an invitation from the Malaysian prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, to discuss peace efforts in the region". Continue reading...
Amanda Donaghey provided DNA to officials in Ahmedabad but wrong remains were flown to the UKThe mother of one of the British victims of the Air India crash says her family is heartbroken" after the wrong remains were sent home in his casket.Air India's London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college hostel seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad on 12 June, killing 241 people onboard. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Near-mint condition preprint copy features 36 portraits of stars including John Lennon and Mick JaggerDavid Bailey's Box of Pin-Ups of 1965 was a defining portrait of the swinging 60s, immortalising some of the most fashionable stars of the era, from John Lennon and Mick Jagger to Jean Shrimpton and Susan Murray.Now the original proof copy of this landmark portfolio of 36 portraits by one of Britain's foremost photographers has come to light for the first time. It is the personal working proof copy of David Hillman, the influential graphic designer who went on to give the Guardian a groundbreaking redesign in 1988. Continue reading...
by Hannah Al-Othman North of England correspondent on (#6YXTF)
Centre for Women's Justice says the criminalisation of women for their abusive partners' actions is shocking'Survivors of coercive control are being unfairly criminalised in England and punished by a justice system that should be protecting them, research has found.A report from the Centre for Women's Justice (CWJ) drew on the experiences of seven women who were criminalised because of their abusive partners. They include a police officer who was convicted of misconduct in public office and lost her job after her controlling ex-boyfriend, also a police officer, coerced her into giving him her password into the police computer system, and a woman who was prosecuted for theft and fraud after her abusive and controlling partner used her bank account and phone number to sell stolen caravans. Continue reading...
Modified images of minors appear on social media account allegedly owned by 17-year-oldPolice in eastern Spain are investigating a 17-year-old boy on suspicion of using artificial intelligence to create and share fake nude images of his female schoolmates that he intended to sell online.Guardia Civil officers in the Ribera Alta area of Valencia began investigating in December last year after a female student reported the creation of a social media account in her name that featured an AI-generated video. Continue reading...
No 10 sources say PM is horrified' by crisis and hopes to convince US to help end unspeakable suffering'Keir Starmer will personally press Donald Trump to revive ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas when they meet on Monday amid growing international alarm over the starvation crisis in Gaza.The prime minister is expected to ask the US president, who is on a four-day break in Scotland, to push for a resumption of peace talks after the US and Israel withdrew their negotiation teams from Qatar. Continue reading...
Thongxay Nilakout, who shot Birte Pfleger's parents in 1994, is among eight convicted criminals who were deportedThe daughter of a woman murdered by a man from Laos who is among those controversially deported from the US to South Sudan has spoken out about her family's pain but also to decry the lack of rights afforded to those who were expelled to countries other than their own.Birte Pfleger lives in Los Angeles and was a history student at Cal State University in Long Beach when her parents came to visit her from their native Germany in 1994 and ended up shot by Thongxay Nilakout during a robbery while on a sightseeing trip. Pfleger's mother, Gisela, was killed and her father, Klaus, wounded. Continue reading...
Ecotricity founder was part of new-age convoy heading to Stonehenge in 1985 when more than 500 people were arrestedThe entrepreneur Dale Vince has called for the recently announced inquiry into violent police clashes at the Orgreave miners' strike to be extended to cover a similar aggressive clash with new age travellers heading for Stonehenge the following year.Vince, who was involved in the Wiltshire clash, known as the Battle of the Beanfield, said the truth of both incidents had been covered up by police. He said he believed both episodes were part of a plan by the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, to smash" the miners and travellers, who she considered to be enemies of the state". Continue reading...
by Josh Halliday North of England editor on (#6YXR9)
Intelligence team could track social media and flag early signs of civil unrest in response to renewed demonstrationsA national police unit will monitor social media for signs of anti-migrant disorder amid fears of a repeat of last summer's riots across England.Detectives from across the country will flag up the early signs of civil unrest under a beefed-up National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC) in Westminster. Continue reading...
by Harriet Sherwood and Severin Carrell on (#6YXNR)
One of Britain's oldest and most prestigious universities is reviewing whether to launch divestment drive and drop antisemitism definitionThe University of Edinburgh is considering whether to unadopt an internationally recognised definition of antisemitism that critics say inhibits freedom of speech on the subject of Israel and Palestine.Edinburgh, one of Britain's oldest and most prestigious universities, is also considering whether to divest from companies accused of enabling alleged human rights violations by Israel. Continue reading...
by Julian Borger Senior international correspondent on (#6YXQB)
While Palestinians starve and global opinion hardens, judgment from international court may not come until 2027 - or laterWhile Palestinians in Gaza die in ever-increasing numbers from starvation each day and a growing number of legal scholars, aid officials and politicians have begun describing Israel's actions as genocide, a definitive ruling on the question by the world's top court will be a long time coming.Experts on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said a judgment on whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is unlikely before the end of 2027 at the earliest, amid warnings that the international community should not use the court's glacial proceedings as an excuse to put off action to stop the killing. Continue reading...
Big Motoring World founder Peter Waddell says Freshstream made him forfeit sum as it saw him as a nuisanceA private equity company accused of ousting a multimillionaire used car salesman from his own business has offered to pay 1.1m (950,000) to settle a separate case with him.Peter Waddell filed his first high court claim against Freshstream last year, alleging that the investment firm used an independent investigation into contested sexist, racist and abusive comments as a means of securing [his] exclusion" from his used car empire, Big Motoring World. Freshstream had acquired a one-third share in Big during 2022. Continue reading...
Latest wave of displaced citizens curse imperial ambition' that has led to an estimated one million Russian casualtiesIt was last year when Valentyn Velykyi noticed Russia's war with Ukraine was getting closer. In early summer, it arrived on his doorstep. You could hear explosions day and night. Recently missiles started flying over my house. There's a rumbling sound. You can see a trail in the sky," the 72-year-old pensioner recalled.Velykyi's home is at No 18 Petrenko Street, in the small agricultural village of Maliyivka. It is located on the administrative border between Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk provinces in central-eastern Ukraine. Once Russian troops were far away. Latterly, they have crept nearer, besieging the city of Pokrovsk and capturing one grassy meadow after another. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Investigation finds one of Britain's oldest and most prestigious universities benefited from transatlantic slavery and was haven for white supremacist theoriesThe University of Edinburgh, one of the UK's oldest and most prestigious educational institutions, played an outsized" role in the creation of racist scientific theories and greatly profited from transatlantic slavery, a landmark inquiry into its history has found.The university raised the equivalent of at least 30m from former students and donors who had links to the enslavement of African peoples, the plantation economy and exploitative wealth-gathering throughout the British empire, according to the findings of an official investigation seen by the Guardian.The university had explicitly sought donations from graduates linked to transatlantic slavery to help build two of its most famous buildings, Old College on South Bridge in the 1790s and the old medical school near Bristo Square in the 1870s.The donations were equivalent to approximately 30m in today's prices, or the higher figure of 202m based on the growth of wages since they were received, and as much as 845m based on economic growth since then.The university had at least 15 endowments derived from African enslavement and 12 linked to British colonialism in India, Singapore and South Africa, and 10 of those were still active and had a minimum value today of 9.4m.The university holds nearly 300 skulls gathered in the 1800s from enslaved and dispossessed people by phrenologists in Edinburgh who wrongly believed skull shape determined a person's character and morals.Fewer than 1% of its staff and just over 2% of its students were Black, well below the 4% of the UK population, and despite Edinburgh's status as a global institution. Continue reading...
Sunday's England v Spain match set to be most-watched women's football match in UK history, benefiting food, drink and hospitality industriesThe climax of the exhilarating women's Euros, as the Lionesses attempt to atone for their loss to Spain at the World Cup, is poised to be the most-watched women's football match in UK history with the tournament providing a more than 800m boost to supermarkets, pubs and retailers.With Sunday's showdown aired on both ITV and the BBC, and their respective streaming services, TV industry executives expect that, with the help of a family-friendly 5pm kick-off time, viewing will eclipse the 14.8 million peak audience when England lost 1-0 to Spain in Sydney two years ago, if the match is close. Continue reading...
Director heartbroken' after 2013 film about doomed romance between Hindu man and Muslim woman altered without his knowledgeAn Indian film company is rereleasing a 2013 romantic drama with an alternate artificial intelligence ending without the involvement of its director, in what could be the first instance of its kind in global cinema.Raanjhanaa, a Hindi-language film about the doomed romance between a Hindu man and a Muslim woman, will return to cinemas on 1 August under its Tamil-language title Ambikapathy. The film's original tragic ending will be replaced by a happy" one. Continue reading...
Authorities warn of further heavy rain and the risk of disasters including landslides and floodingHeavy rain around Beijing and across northern China killed two people and forced thousands to relocate as authorities warned of further widespread rain and the risk of disasters including landslides and flooding.Two people were dead and two missing in Hebei province, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday morning. Overnight rain dumped a record 145mm per hour on Fuping county in the industrial city of Baoding. Continue reading...
Journalist Tania Safi and human rights activist Robert Martin on board Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessel the Handala, group saysA boat carrying two Australians has been intercepted by Israeli troops, Israel's foreign ministry has confirmed, as a pro-Palestinian activist group claims its crew have been subjected to unlawful" detention while attempting to transport aid to Gaza.The Handala, registry name Navaren, led by the activist group the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was roughly 50km from the Egyptian coast and 100km west of Gaza when intercepted, an online tracking tool set up to plot the ship's course showed. Continue reading...
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