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Former health secretary tells inquiry he did not properly challenge assurances that plans were sufficient

Amid rising global tensions, Chinese leader tells PM, Chris Hipkins, his visit to Beijing is meaningfulXi Jinping has praised the great importance" of China's relationship with its friend and partner" New Zealand, as Chris Hipkins visits Beijing to promote trade amid growing geopolitical tensions.Speaking after the two leaders met in the Chinese capital on Tuesday evening, Xi told reporters through an interpreter: I myself [am] attaching great importance to our relations with New Zealand," and China always views New Zealand as a friend and a partner". Continue reading...

Ennosuke Ichikawa detained after both parents found unconscious at his Tokyo home last monthOne of Japan's best-known kabuki actors has been arrested on suspicion of assisting in his mother's suicide after both parents were found unconscious at his home last month.Police said Ennosuke Ichikawa, a 47-year-old star of the classical theatre form, allegedly made a 75-year-old woman take sleep-inducing pills at his home and die of psychoactive drug addiction, thereby assisting in her suicide".In the UK, the youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org, and 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, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 988 and you can text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Tory peer Eric Pickles asks for sanctions for breaches of ministerial code and end to out-of-date good chaps' system

Less than 50% of RCN members voted in ballot, falling short of proportion required for result to stand

Partner of woman whose body was found in River Wyre on 19 February says Bulley had been looking forward to the futureNicola Bulley was in amazing spirits" in the days leading up to her disappearance and looking forward to the future, an inquest has heard.Her partner, Paul Ansell, said Bulley was in a good place and full of beans" after a successful and important work meeting the day before she vanished. She was in amazing spirits" and excited about her career as a mortgage broker, he said. Continue reading...

Scottish songwriter, 26, says he will take a break from touring for the foreseeable future'Lewis Capaldi has cancelled his entire upcoming tour and announced he is taking a break from touring for the foreseeable future" in order to adjust to the impact" of living with Tourette syndrome.The 26-year-old Scottish songwriter's statement comes in the wake of his performance on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury on Saturday, in which he lost his voice and relied on the audience to help him sing his biggest hits. The set was his return to performance after announcing in early June that he was cancelling all dates in the lead-up to the festival in order to take care of his mental health. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Labour leader did not contact Acoba about taking up role at top firm in 2014, it has emergedKeir Starmer failed to consult the post-government appointments watchdog when he left the Crown Prosecution Service and took a highly paid consultancy with a top law firm, the Guardian has found.After the Labour leader stepped down as director of public prosecutions (DPP) in October 2013, he became a part-time consultant at Mishcon de Reya, an elite London firm that paid him at least 100,000. Continue reading...

GLA data reveals over 1,700 more people on the streets compared with last year amid cost of living crisisRough sleeping is soaring in London with over 1,700 more people on the streets than last year - a 21% rise, according to figures from the Greater London Authority (GLA).The increase from 8,329 people seen sleeping rough in 2021-22 to 10,053 in 2022-23 was described as categorically terrible" by Rick Henderson, the chief executive of the Homeless Link frontline charity, and extremely alarming" by Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London. Continue reading...

The 17-month-old boy identified as Ronan died of head injuries from a suspected assault earlier this month

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Some community leaders say report is evidence of officers targeting people based on their ethnicity, which Victoria police rejects

Head of OSI argued any further work would be a waste of time' but Victorian attorney general says decision to lay charges rests with the DPP

Impact assessment' of the illegal migration bill reignites bitter rows over controversial schemeThe cost of sending a single person seeking asylum to Rwanda could be nearly 170,000, according to government analysis, which has immediately reignited bitter rows over the controversial scheme.A long-awaited impact assessment" of the illegal migration bill has conceded that ministers do not know the overall costs of implementing plans to detain and deport anyone who arrives in the UK by irregular means. Continue reading...

The federal government has paid the firm to audit aged care facilities while advising providers

Teenager was in St Albans with two friends, walking home from the train station, when SUV struck him and men got out

Lowest ever percentage of freedom of information requests were fully granted in first three months of current governmentRishi Sunak's government placed a record number of blocks on freedom of information requests in its first three months, leading to accusations of a culture of concealment".New figures show that the government gave out information in full in only 33.6% of cases in which it held the data during the first three months of Sunak's administration. Just 3,895 of 11,597 resolvable requests" were granted in full. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: Why temperatures are increasing so quickly and what that could mean for the future Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning.Even though summer has only just begun, record heatwaves are already being set. Last week Beijing logged its hottest June day since records began, at 41C. In Texas, a deadly heatwave is entering its third week - a number of records have already been broken across the state, including a blistering 115F (46.1C) reading in Del Rio and 116F (46.6C) in Cotulla. Canada had wildfires that burnt so furiously this month toxic smoke was felt across the United States. In India, morgues and hospitals became overwhelmed after temperatures hit 45C in some areas - at least 96 people reportedly died from heat-aggravated conditions. In the UK, a wildfire broke out in Scotland, burning an estimated 1,500 hectares of land and temperatures in some areas have already hit 32C.Coronavirus | Ministers knew in 2016 that even a moderate pandemic would overrun the system" and that the government's emergency response function would be very rapidly overwhelmed" by a major disease outbreak, the UK Covid-19 public inquiry has heard.Housing | A freeze on housing benefit rates since April 2020 and surging rent prices have pushed the number of homes on the market that can be paid for through welfare down from 23% to 5%, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies. Around 2 million households in England and Wales receive housing benefit.Russia | Vladimir Putin has claimed in a TV address that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's uprising was doomed to fail" and said Russia showed unity" in the face of a treacherous" rebellion. Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised Ukrainian troops for advancing in all sectors", after visiting frontline soldiers in the east and south of the country.UK news | Nicola Bulley died from drowning, with no evidence that she was harmed or had alcohol in her bloodstream. Such are the findings of a consultant pathologist, as told to an inquest into the death of the 45-year-old mortgage broker.Conservatives | A woman has accused Conservative London mayoral candidate Daniel Korski of groping her in Downing Street a decade ago. Daisy Goodwin, a TV producer, alleged that Korski had put his hand on her breast during a meeting at Downing Street, while he was a special adviser to David Cameron. A spokesperson for Korski has said that he categorically denies any allegation of inappropriate behaviour whatsoever". Continue reading...

The move is a major policy shift in country's male-dominated parliament and brings Japan into line with more than 90 other countriesJapan is to permit the sale of emergency contraceptives without prescription on a trial basis, weeks after it approved the abortion pill.The move, reported by media on Tuesday, will bring Japan into line with dozens of other countries where the morning-after pill is already available over the counter. Continue reading...

Campaigners say mechanism is needed to ensure public inquiry recommendations are not ignoredCovid bereaved families and Grenfell survivors are demanding greater enforcement of public inquiry recommendations to stop preventable deaths.Hundreds of millions of pounds have been spent on public inquiries in recent years and the campaigners are calling for a national oversight mechanism to tackle a shocking accountability gap" and ensure that when recommendations are made after deaths, they are not lost, ignored or left to gather dust". Continue reading...

Scientist with young British daughter dismayed by accusatory tone of letter after officials' errorA widowed Dutch research scientist living in Britain with his British six-year-old daughter has had his skilled worker visa cancelled by the Home Office and received a notification that he needs to leave the UK within the next two months.Bobby Stuijfzand received a letter from the Home Office this month cancelling his visa. The letter said his entry clearance had been removed because you have stopped working for your sponsor", despite Stuijfzand still being employed by them. The notification added: You do not have a right of appeal or administrative review against the decision to cancel your permission to stay." Continue reading...

Under online safety bill, maximum sentence where intent to cause distress is proved will be two yearsSharing deepfake intimate images is to be criminalised in England and Wales. Amendments to the online safety bill will make it illegal to share explicit images or videos that have been digitally manipulated to look like someone else without their consent.The Ministry of Justice said the use of deepfakes had been increasing in recent years, with a website that virtually strips women naked receiving 38m hits in the first eight months of 2021. Continue reading...

Children are being left in limbo so long that they are at risk of harm, social workers warnLone child asylum seekers are facing fivefold increases in delays in having their claims processed by the Home Office, with devastating consequences, according to a new report.Social workers, legal professionals and the children themselves have warned that the impact of being left in limbo about their future for so long includes the risk of suicide, self-harm and persistent insomnia.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. Continue reading...

African, Middle Eastern and First Nations people up to four times more likely to be fined for Covid-19 breaches

The short-lived rebellion by the mercenary group posed a serious challenge to Vladimir Putin's rule in RussiaJoe Biden has described the Wagner mercenary group's brief mutiny against the Russian government as part of an internal power struggle, in which he said the US played no role.We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it," Biden said during an event at the White House on Monday. We're going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend's events and the implications for Russia and Ukraine. But it's still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going." Continue reading...

Party to use opposition debate to call for workable proposals, saying Moscow must pay for destruction in UkraineLabour has made a partial break from the government over its Ukraine policy by demanding ministers come up with a plan to freeze Russian assets within 90 days. It is also demanding a deadline is set after which it will be a criminal offence to fail to disclose information about the whereabouts of Russian assets.Labour, which has been reluctant to make public any differences with the government over the Ukraine war, has decided to put pressure on ministers, believing other countries are ahead of the UK with plans to seize Russian assets. Continue reading...

Watchdog identified further details that could and should' have been handed over to Macpherson inquiryAn official investigation has concluded that Scotland Yard had information that could and should" have been handed to the inquiry into Stephen Lawrence's murder but failed to disclose it, the Guardian has learned.The unpublished findings from the police watchdog are a potential fresh embarrassment to the Met and emerged after a sixth suspect in the 1993 killing of the black teenager was identified, leading to calls from Lawrence's father and best friend to reopen the investigation. Continue reading...

Claims it let a key suspect in Stephen Lawrence murder slip away show how the force continues to be weighed down by its pastIt has been a torrid few years, largely self-inflicted, for the Metropolitan police, Britain's biggest police force and the standard bearer for policing in the UK. In the first half of this year alone, it was revealed that it missed a serial sex attacker in its ranks, David Carrick, even when there were repeated warnings about him. Then came the Casey review after Wayne Couzens's murder of Sarah Everard, which showed a force ridden with sexism, racism and prejudice, too often failing the public and people in its own workforce.These failings came after about three years' worth of blunders and wrongdoing so eye-catching that they have shattered confidence in the Met. From nauseating hate messages shared among staff, to officers photographing the dead, to a leadership more concerned with denial than cleaning up the force. Continue reading...

Kyriakos Mitsotakis of centre-right New Democracy party wins second term as prime minister but unheard-of group delivers shockGreece's general election has propelled a far-right group called the Spartans, a previously unheard-of political force, into the Athens parliament with the help of an imprisoned, neo-Nazi leader of the now-disbanded Golden Dawn party.While the centre-right politician Kyriakos Mitsotakis has won a second term as prime minister, the Spartans have emerged as the fifth biggest group in the 300-seat parliament. Continue reading...

Party leader seeks to win back British Indian voters after anger over party's perceived support for Pakistan in Kashmir disputeKeir Starmer has promised to reset relations between the Labour party and India after years of tension between the two.The Labour leader said on Monday that his party had made mistakes in its approach to relations with the world's most populous country, and that it would seek closer ties if elected to power next year. Continue reading...

Ministers want rail firms to push ahead with plans that RMT union has pledged to opposeA process to shut nearly all of Britain's railway station ticket offices could begin as early as next week, the RMT union has warned.Almost 1,000 offices are believed to be targeted for closure under government proposals to cut costs and modernise" the railway, although ministers have for months shied away from spelling out the extent of the plans, in the face of concern from their own MPs as well as unions and passenger groups. Continue reading...

Mercenaries are recovering, eating and repairing gear', says source, as some Russian officials call for them to be disarmed

Controversial host to replace Carlson, who was fired in April in aftermath of $787.5m settlement reached with DominionThe controversial host Jesse Watters will take the Fox News weeknight prime-time slot once filled by Tucker Carlson, the network said on Monday.Laura Ingraham will host at 7pm, Watters at 8pm, Sean Hannity at 9pm and Greg Gutfeld at 10pm, Fox News said. Continue reading...

Pathologist says in her opinion there was no alcohol in blood of 45-year-old, and no evidence of assaultWitnesses heard a short gasping scream on the morning Nicola Bulley disappeared, her inquest has been told, with other testimony suggesting the mortgage broker drowned with no evidence of third-party harm or alcohol in her bloodstream.Two villagers told the inquest in Preston they heard a scream on the morning of 27 January. Continue reading...

Exclusive: 4.8m refurbishment, which has taken eight years, will include extension to building, restored interior and 50-seat second screenWhen Hyde Park Picture House first opened its doors to the public shortly before the first world war, women were at the mercy of groping men, who used the darkness as a cover to carry out attacks.It was such a problem that the owner of the Leeds cinema installed gas lamps in the auditorium in the hope of deterring would-be assailants. Continue reading...

Foreign secretary says Britain planning for all scenarios' after Wagner group uprising

Bloc is set to give country 860m despite rapid erosion of democracy since President Kais Saied took power in 2021The children of prominent jailed Tunisian judges and politicians have accused the European Union of betraying its values by whitewashing the regime of President Kais Saied in the vain hope that he can stem the flow of migrants to Europe.The EU is set to provide Tunisia with 1bn (860m) in aid despite the obliteration of democracy in the country over the past two years. Continue reading...

Sergei Lavrov moves to reassure sub-Saharan allies after recent armed mutiny led by Yevgeny Prigozhin

Data from Moneyfacts shows average cost of two-year deal now at 6.23% with five-year at 5.86%The average price of two and five-year fixed-rate mortgages in the UK has hit its highest level for seven months, putting further pressure on borrowers who are reaching the end of their deals.Data from financial information firm Moneyfacts showed the cost of a two-year deal for homeowners rose to 6.23% on Monday, up from 6.19% at the end of last week and its highest since last November. Continue reading...

Mayo was 15 when she killed son she gave birth to at her home in Herefordshire to hide pregnancy from her familyA woman has been detained for a minimum of 12 years for murdering her newborn baby when she was 15 to prevent her family discovering she had been pregnant.Paris Mayo, now 19, gave birth to her son, Stanley, alone and in silence in the living room of her home in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, while her parents and brother slept upstairs. Continue reading...

Bernardo Arevalo will face off for presidency against Sandra Torres, a veteran politician who has faced corruption accusationsGuatemala's presidential election has thrown up a major surprise with the centrist Bernardo Arevalo claiming a spot in the second round amid growing anger over political corruption and the erosion of democracy in Central America's most populous nation.Alongside El Salvador and Nicaragua, Guatemala is one of several Central American countries which has taken an alarming authoritarian turn in recent years, with activists denouncing growing attacks on the media and more than two dozen judges and prosecutors forced into exile. Continue reading...

Pro-Russian Telegram channels say Ukrainians crossed Dnipro River in apparent advance towards Crimea

Met urged to re-examine case after new suspect is named and evidence emerges of police mistakesThe father and best friend of Stephen Lawrence have called for the criminal investigation into his murder to be reopened after evidence emerged of bungling by the Metropolitan police.The force on Monday named a significant new suspect in the case, admitting too many mistakes were made in the initial investigation. Continue reading...

Sarah Henshaw was last seen at her home in Derbyshire last Tuesday morningA body believed to be that of a missing 31-year-old woman has been found after a murder investigation was launched, police said.Sarah Henshaw was last seen at her home address in Norman Street, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, at about 9pm last Tuesday. Continue reading...

Writer and playwright talks about cooking rabbit stew with her mother and passing First Nations' food knowledge to her daughter

Decision could make inmates' contact with family and friends unaffordable, despite studies showing it reduces recidivism

Kevin McCarthy threatens impeachment proceedings in a tweet after president's son accepts plea deal

White, who died in 2021 aged 50, was convicted of an assault on a black shop worker near where Lawrence was murderedThe BBC has identified a new suspect in the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence 30 years ago: the now deceased Matthew White.White died in 2021, aged 50. According to the BBC's findings, he was a drug user at the time of Lawrence's murder in 1993 and later became a heroin addict. Continue reading...

Speaking at launch of UK's first museum created with and for young people', Tristram Hunt said it could help fill gapA horrible disparity" is opening between state and private schools in the provision of creative education, the director of the V&A, one of the country's leading museums, has said.Speaking at the launch of the Young V&A museum, aimed at children from birth to 14 years, Tristram Hunt said creative education was being downgraded or excluded in many state schools, leading to a 60% fall in the numbers of young people taking art and design subjects at GCSE. Continue reading...

Government knew in 2016 that major disease outbreak would overwhelm health system, officials sayMinisters knew in 2016 that even a moderate pandemic would overrun the system" and the government's emergency response function would be very rapidly overwhelmed" by a major disease outbreak, the UK Covid-19 public inquiry has heard.A meeting of the Department of Health and Social Care board, which included the permanent secretary, Sir Chris Wormald, and the then chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, concluded there would be significant issues if it became necessary to track or quarantine thousands of people", newly disclosed documents revealed. Continue reading...