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Exclusive: BCG relied on verbal agreements' with senior bureaucrats to secure extra $880,000, according to emails attached to a submission to Senate inquiry

Metropolitan police firearms officers have downed their weapons in protest at the charging of a colleague with murder. Vikram Dodd reports on what happens nowLast September, a Metropolitan police operation led to the killing of Chris Kaba, an unarmed 24-year-old man, by a firearms officer in south-east London. Last week, the officer identified only as NX121 was charged with murder.The Guardian's crime correspondent, Vikram Dodd, tells Michael Safi that the decision to prosecute a colleague for murder has led to dozens of officers putting down their weapons and asking for clarity about their duties. Continue reading...

Adam Robert Corden Britton, 51, tortured and sexually exploited more than 42 dogs and also transmitted child abuse material before his arrest in April 2022Warning: this story contains graphic content

The 78-year-old, the show's oldest ever contestant, demonstrated advanced moves in the cha-cha-chaWhether you can do the splits is a favoured test of flexibility in the playground, but it's generally assumed that most people over 40 can't. So when 78-year-old Angela Rippon kicked her leg into a standing split on Saturday's Strictly Come Dancing, she caused a stir among viewers.Rippon is the show's oldest ever contestant, yet experts say her move is difficult for most younger people and highly unusual for someone her age, as the body stiffens with age, while balance and muscle strength decline. Continue reading...

The stricken authority now set to receive a revised emergency budget after Michael Gove was forced to call in commissionersBirmingham city council has voted to approve spending control measures, as well as endorsing a financial recovery plan" that is already under way.The council debated the plan to tackle an estimated 760m equal pay liability before giving the go-ahead for the section 114 notice it issued earlier this month. The notice in effect declared the authority bankrupt and it is now expected to receive a revised emergency budget at another meeting late next month. Continue reading...

The Scottish-born actor was most famous for his stint in the 60s spy TV series, and most recently for his work on NCISActor David McCallum, who became a teen heartthrob in the hit series The Man from UNCLE in the 1960s and was the eccentric medical examiner in the popular television show NCIS 40 years later, has died. He was 90.McCallum died on Monday of natural causes, surrounded by family at New York Presbyterian Hospital, CBS said in a statement. Continue reading...

Overwhelming conference vote defies Ed Davey strategy of reshaping policy to court wavering Tory votersLiberal Democrat members have handed a very public rebuke to Ed Davey before his key speech to the party conference, rebelling in large numbers over a plan by the leadership to scrap national targets for housebuilding.In a first tangible sign of internal pushback against the Davey-led idea of shaping the Lib Dems' policy platform to tempt wavering Conservative voters to backing the party in so-called blue wall" seats, members voted to maintain a target of 380,000 homes a year. Continue reading...

Home secretary's address in Washington will urge reform of UN convention and has already prompted concern from charitiesSuella Braverman will appeal on Tuesday to world leaders and political thinkers to consider rewriting key refugee rules so they are fit for the modern age".In a move to alter an agreement that undermined UK plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, the home secretary will argue that the United Nations 1951 refugee convention must be reformed to tackle a worldwide migration crisis. Continue reading...

The gold-medal winner will run in Colchester after current Conservative incumbent is to stand downThe Olympic gold-winning rower James Cracknell will stand as a Conservative candidate at the next general election.The rowing champion will run in Colchester, where the incumbent Conservative MP Will Quince is to stand down. Continue reading...

Morning runs by Edgar Lungu and party supporters amount to activism' that requires clearance, police sayA former president of Zambia has been warned that his morning jog is turning into political activism" for which he must seek police approval.The police said the runs by Edgar Lungu and some of his party supporters requires their clearance to ensure the safety of the man who lost power in 2021. Continue reading...

More than 6,000 ethnic Armenian refugees have left region following Azerbaijan victory

The Turkish president described last week's offensive in the disputed territory as a matter of pride'The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, and the Azerbaijani leader, Ilham Aliyev, have lauded Baku's military victory in Nagorno-Karabakh as thousands of ethnic Armenians fled their homes in the breakaway region and headed to Armenia.Aliyev hosted his Turkish counterpart on Monday in the autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, a strip of Azerbaijani territory separated from the rest of the country by Armenia. Last week, Erdoan, an ally of Aliyev who backed Azerbaijan with weaponry in the 2020 conflict, said he supported the aims of Azerbaijan's latest military operation but had played no part in it. Continue reading...

Force says allegations against performer are non-recent and there have been no arrestsScotland Yard has launched an investigation into a number of sexual offence allegations from across the country after media reporting of claims against Russell Brand.The 48-year-old comedian and actor has been accused of rape, assault and emotional abuse between 2006 and 2013, when he was at the height of his fame working for the BBC and Channel 4 and starring in Hollywood films. He denies the allegations. Continue reading...

Technology secretary, Michelle Donelan, hopes safety summit will help to establish early warning signs in technologyA smoke alarm" for dangerous artificial intelligence systems is needed in order to head off a range of serious threats such as mass loss of life, cyber-attacks and AI technology spiralling out of control, UK ministers have warned.The technology secretary, Michelle Donelan, said she hoped a forthcoming safety summit hosted in the UK would help to establish an early warning system whereby tech companies look for risks in the AI products they are building and know how to respond to them. Continue reading...

In stern letter to Olaf Scholz, Georgia Meloni criticises support provided for saving people in the MediterraneanItaly's far-right prime minster, Giorgia Meloni, has written a stern letter to the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, telling him she was astonished" to learn that Berlin was paying charities to rescue people in the Mediterranean.The row between Italy and German broke out after the Catholic charity Sant'Egidio said it had signed a fresh deal with Berlin to fund activities assisting refugees in Italy. Continue reading...

Ukraine says 34 officers were killed including Black Sea fleet admiral Viktor Sokolov in its missile strike on Sevastapol last week

With Moscow's resources clearly finite' the Kremlin has had to adapt to Baku's rising powerAzerbaijan's military victory in the extended 35-year conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh is a notable geopolitical setback for Russia, traditionally Armenia's partner and ally.Moscow's post-Soviet strategy has often been to stoke conflicts to weaken its near neighbours, creating crises in Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. But on this occasion the Kremlin has had to adapt to Azerbaijan's rising power - showing a willingness to sacrifice an old ally. Continue reading...

When it comes to investigating police shootings, what all sides agree on is it takes too longThe Metropolitan police's firearms command is seen as prestigious to serve in, but Louise Casey's damning report into Britain's largest force published in March found it had become dogged by cultural issues.Some of its virtues can slide into vices. It is close knit, offering strong support for colleagues in trouble, which can turn into an insularity. It's members volunteer to face extreme danger, rarely open fire, and some can appear to sneer at those who question them, viewing it as doubting their professionalism. Continue reading...

Airport will share 164 cancellations between airlines until Sunday as it seeks to avoid diversionsThousands of passengers flying to and from Gatwick this week will have their flights cancelled after the airport announced a cap on movements because of a shortage of staff in air traffic control.Gatwick imposed an immediate cap on Monday of 800 flights taking off or landing a day. Continue reading...

Comments from Paul Johnson of Institute of Fiscal Studies come as Downing Street hints at delay to work on second phase of rail linkAround 20,000 university workers are out on strike this week at more than 50 universities across the UK, despite a dramatic last-minute scaling back of industrial action.Strikes had been set to go ahead at 142 UK universities this week as part of a long-running dispute over pay and working conditions, but it emerged last week that two thirds of branches of the University and College Union (UCU) had declined to take part.Davey said the Lib Dem commitment - dating back to 1992 - to raise income tax by 1p to improve public services is unsustainable in the current economic climate. Originally the money raised was earmarked for education, but at the last election the party said it would use it to fund the NHS.Speaking from Bournemouth to broadcast studios, Davey suggested the burden should instead fall on companies making huge profits" while people struggle with the cost of living. Continue reading...

Incident that left police officer and four attackers dead marks one of gravest escalations in violence for yearsKosovan authorities say they have recovered a large cache of arms after ethnic Serb gunmen stormed a village in the restive north at the weekend, battling police and barricading themselves into a monastery.We can easily say that the equipment was destined for several hundred other assailants," the interior minister, Xhelal Svecla, said on Monday. Continue reading...

British territory's commissioner withdraws decision after supreme court challengeA group of Tamil asylum seekers stranded on a tiny British territory in the Indian Ocean have won their fight against being forcibly returned to Sri Lanka after a government climbdown.The group are on Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Islands, which the UK calls the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and over which it continues to claim sovereignty despite a UN court ruling that they are part of Mauritius. Continue reading...

Emma Heming Willis says she has been care partner' to husband, 68, after actor was diagnosed with frontotemporal degenerationSix months after Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, it is hard to know" whether the actor, known for roles in Die Hard and Pulp Fiction, is aware of the extent to which his condition has worsened, his wife has revealed in a new interview.Emma Heming Willis also told Today's Hoda Kotb in an interview broadcast on Monday that she has been a care partner" to her husband since the moment of the diagnosis. Continue reading...

David McAllister, chairman of the European parliament's foreign affairs committee, says ceasefire is only the first step

Former nurse, convicted of murdering seven babies at Countess of Chester hospital, will be retried in June 2024Lucy Letby will face a retrial on a charge of attempting to murder a newborn baby girl, a court has been told.The former nurse, 33, was found guilty in August of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill a further six at the Countess of Chester hospital in north-west England. Continue reading...

Southern port of Odesa hit by Russian missiles overnight; at least one person killed in attack on Beryslav

Advisers, MPs and former ministers are sharply split over committing or quitting on the high-speed rail line

Greater Manchester mayor urges Rishi Sunak to listen to leaders in north before making decision on high-speed rail project

Aidan Roche, 29, from Middlesbrough was last heard from in June while walking Eiger trail in Swiss AlpsPolice in Switzerland have found the body of a British hiker who was missing for three months, his family have confirmed.Aidan Roche, 29, an offshore chemical engineer from Middlesbrough, was last heard from on 22 June while hiking on the Eiger trail in the Grindelwald area of the Swiss Alps, about 50 miles (80km) from Berne. Continue reading...

Weekend rail strikes also hit revenues as boss blames persistent high inflation' for losses

Cosa Nostra boss, 61, had been in hiding since 1993 and was arrested in January while attending hospitalMatteo Messina Denaro, the last godfather" of the Sicilian mafia who was accused of orchestrating some of the most heinous crimes perpetrated by the Cosa Nostra, has died after a long illness.The national news agency Ansa announced his death overnight on Sunday. The mayor of the central Italian city of L'Aquila, Pierluigi Biondi, confirmed Denaro's death in hospital following a worsening of his illness". Continue reading...

Leaked texts between Pezzullo and Scott Briggs spark widespread calls for home affairs secretary to be sacked

Lib Dem leader says party will target Conservative voters and use energy firms' profits and banks' tax breaks to fund NHSEd Davey has ruled out the Liberal Democrats seeking tax rises on even the richest individuals amid ongoing efforts by his party to target disaffected Conservative voters in dozens of so-called blue wall" seats.A day before his speech to his party's conference in Bournemouth, the Lib Dem leader also confirmed that the previous policy of adding 1p on to income tax to pay for better NHS services had been scrapped. Continue reading...

Full extent of incident near Nammuldi iron ore mine in the Pilbara still unknown, Muntulgura Guruma representative says

Separately, only 30% of strip-search records showed seriousness and urgency' threshold was met to justify action under law

Discount chain says it has attracted an extra 1 million customers to its 1,000 UK stores in the past yearAldi has reported record sales in the UK last year, which the chain attributed to shoppers hunting for discounted groceries as food costs soared during the cost of living crisis.The retailer said it had attracted an extra 1 million customers to its 1,000 UK stores over the past year, in what it said was a sign that shoppers were turning their back on established supermarkets. Continue reading...

UK law firm Leigh Day says money given to 77 workers for murders and rapes sidesteps' multinational's responsibility over attackUnilever is to make payments to 77 tea pickers who worked on one of its plantations in Kenya that was targeted during post-election violence in 2007.The UK law firm Leigh Day, representing the workers, said the London-based consumer goods multinational had agreed to make voluntary, or ex-gratia, payments to former workers at its subsidiary Unilever Tea Kenya, who were attacked by armed assailants at its plantation in Kericho. Continue reading...

Qantas could take another hit to its already dented reputation if it hikes airfares to recoup rising fuel costs

Galina Timchenko, the CEO of Meduza, was hacked earlier this year before participating in a meeting of exiled Russian journalistsAn independent Russian news outlet whose founder was hacked in Germany earlier this year through military-grade spyware has said it believes a European state was most likely behind the cyberattack, raising thorny questions about an EU member state's possible use of a blacklisted cyberweapon against a journalist.Galina Timchenko and Ivan Kolpakov, the founder and current editor-in-chief of Meduza, a Latvia-based independent Russian news outlet outlawed by the Kremlin, said new circumstantial evidence pointed to an EU state as the likely perpetrator behind the hacking of Timchenko's mobile phone in Berlin earlier this year, which occurred in February shortly before she participated in a meeting of exiled Russian journalists. Continue reading...

Analysis reveals 26% increase in the last decade of people over 50 working part-time as perspectives on work and retirement shiftRecord numbers of people in their 50s and older are in part-time work, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics, with one quarter of workers in their 50s working part-time.In what has been hailed as a paradigm shift in how we view work and retirement, the data reveals that 3.6 million older people are working part-time in the UK: a record high and a 12% increase since 2021. It is also a 26% increase in the past decade and a 56% increase in the past two decades. Continue reading...

Coroner's office opening investigation into treatment of Balram Patel, who died at St Thomas' after his lungs were floodedA 30-year-old man who died last month at one of the UK's leading hospitals would still be alive if Martha's rule", giving the right to a second opinion, had been in place, his father has said.Balram Patel, who was described by his father as happiness personified" died at St Thomas' hospital on 9 August. Balram had multiple disabilities and was developmentally delayed, so behaved more like an eight-year-old. Jay Patel, 58, claimed that when his son fell ill, he was given unsuitable treatment, which had not previously worked on him, and he was refused a second opinion. As a consequence, he said Balram's lungs became fatally flooded. Continue reading...

Historic' summit seen as part of effort to counter Beijing in the region as Pacific leaders seek more support on climate change

After five days of negotiations with studios and streaming services, union says it has an exceptional' deal for members to vote onHollywood writers are poised to end their nearly five-month strike after reaching a tentative agreement with studios, the writers' union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said Sunday night, though the full details of agreement still have to be formally approved.The deal came after five marathon days of renewed talks by negotiators for the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and an alliance of studios, streaming services and production companies, and must be approved by the guild's board and members before the strike officially ends. Continue reading...

National leader ends long-running question over whether party is prepared to work with Winston PetersAfter months of prevarication, National leader Christopher Luxon has said he will pursue a coalition with Winston Peters' New Zealand First after the October election, but only as a last resort.Luxon even left open the prospect of a sensational return for Peters as deputy prime minister in declaring himself open to a deal with the politician. Continue reading...

Police say 56-year-old charged over the alleged assault on Natasha Fyles at a Darwin market

Emergency services say 14 people were rescued at the facility on Mangan Street, Balwyn, on Sunday night

Thousands of women who have been underpaid by up to 11,000 a year set to launch claim, GMB union saysSheffield city council is to become the latest local authority to face a mass equal pay claim from women who have been underpaid by up to 11,000 a year, the GMB union has said.Thousands of women will launch claims against the council on Monday over a scandalous" job evaluation scheme that discriminates against female-dominated roles, the union claimed. Continue reading...

Much-delayed 38.6m project brings works from 1800 to 1945 together for the first time as single collectionA suite of new galleries built to present work by many of Scotland's most famous artists, including the Glasgow Boys, Phoebe Anna Traquair and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, opens to the public this week.For the first time, the galleries in Edinburgh will showcase significant pieces of Scottish art held by National Galleries Scotland in a single collection, after a much-delayed construction project that involved digging out new space beside the Mound in the city centre. Continue reading...

Co-operative enterprise Vale of Aeron is one of 45 projects to receive money in Community Ownership Fund's latest roundWhen Iwan Thomas received the news that he had won a 300,000 grant for the Vale of Aeron, a pub adored by the poet Dylan Thomas when he lived nearby in the 1940s, he was working a shift but had to hold his tongue.Thomas, the 53-year-old chair of the Menter Tafarn y Vale co-operative group that runs the pub, could not tell any of the regulars until the news embargo lifted. There was certainly a wry smile, where you know you've got something you're keeping a secret, but it's a good secret," he said. We're delighted." Continue reading...

The home affairs minister Clare O'Neil said she was aware' of reporting by Nine of the texts, which include comments about political figures