Scottish Nationalists delighted by talk of referendum but delegates at Dundee had different interpretations of what their leader meantWhen Humza Yousaf stood to address the first substantial gathering of the SNP since he replaced Nicola Sturgeon as leader, he acknowledged the turmoil that is engulfing the party head on.After the SNP was rocked by the arrests of senior figures, including Sturgeon herself, as part of Police Scotland's investigation into party finances, he told activists meeting in Dundee for a one-day convention to discuss independence strategy: You may have picked up there have been a few challenges." The hall responded with nervous laughter. Continue reading...

A Brighton hotel where unaccompanied young people seeking asylum disappeared is to be brought back into use by the Home OfficeA notorious Brighton hotel from where scores of children were kidnapped is to be reopened by the Home Office to house unaccompanied youngsters again, leaked internal memos reveal.The Home Office was forced to empty a string of hotels for unaccompanied children after the Observer revealed that huge numbers were going missing, with many having been abducted by criminal gangs. Continue reading...

Lawyers claim the assets of a Russian banker accused of fraud can be legally sent to a bank controlled by Vladimir PutinThe 5.3m sale of a 12-bedroom mansion in Surrey involved in a case of alleged banking fraud is heading for the high court in a bid by lawyers to send some of the proceeds to one of Russia's state-controlled banks.Lawyers believe some of the money can be transferred to one of Vladimir Putin's state-controlled banks, the National Bank Trust, without any breach of sanctions. They are seeking a court order to allow the transfer. Continue reading...

Scandal-plagued firm announces Kevin Burrowes as new head of Australian division

Rare treasures that escaped the destruction of the English Reformation show a country on the forefront of medieval and gothic artA new exhibition in Paris aims to show how England in the middle ages was very much part of Europe's dynamic art, architectural, trade and culture scene between AD1000 and AD1500.Organisers said the event would discredit the popular perception" - mainly across the Channel - that medieval England was primitive and barbaric" while France and parts of Europe enjoyed a gothic zenith. Continue reading...

Allegations against Ben Elliot, knighted by Boris Johnson, come amid concerns over political appointments to public and cultural bodiesA senior Tory knighted in Boris Johnson's honours list has been accused of a fresh conflict of interest, after it emerged that he helped arrange a Tory fundraiser at the V&A while he was both a trustee of the museum and the party's chair.Internal emails seen by the Observer reveal that Ben Elliot, who has previously faced accusations of blurring his business and political activities, had an early role in setting up the party's glitzy 2021 Winter Ball, introducing party officials to V&A staff. Continue reading...

Housing minister says federal government does not have power to implement rent freeze and long-term solution involves increasing supply

Yevgeny Prigozhin agrees to move to Belarus after negotiated end to what was in effect Russia's first armed coup in decades

Anguished families talk about how the Bank of England's 13th consecutive interest hike is affecting them - and their fears for the futureLiam, 36, a senior IT manager and married father-of-one from Newcastle upon Tyne, is one of millions of homeowners whose mortgage payments will rise even higher after the Bank of England on Thursday put up the base interest rate to 5% - a 15-year high.Together with his husband, Liam bought his four-bedroom house in 2019 for 269k, and the couple's three-year mortgage deal, refixed at 1.64% in 2020 just before the first lockdown, expired in March. Continue reading...

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Newspapers around the world raced to cover fast-moving events inside Russia, with many assessing what it could mean for Vladimir Putin

This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war in our new live blogRussian security services have moved swiftly against the Wagner boss,

Consumption of meat pies has fallen back to pre-Covid levels, reflecting a return to normal patterns rather than a long-term crisis, experts say

As the industry gathers in London this week, there are signs of a new dawn after the damage done by Tory subsidy cutsBritain's solar industry delivered record levels of renewable electricity to the power grid earlier this year, but as daylight hours stretch longer around the summer solstice, it could be on track to reach another record.Solar power generation in June is on track to come within a hair's breadth of the record set during an unusually sunny May in 2020 at about 20 gigawatt hours, according to Alastair Buckley, the professor of organic electronics at the University of Sheffield. Continue reading...

On stage at Glastonbury, Sawayama criticised the 1975 frontman over podcast appearance in which he joined in with mockery of rapper Ice Spice and referred to racially charged pornographyPop singer Rina Sawayama has spoken out against her labelmate, the 1975's lead singer Matty Healy, for widely criticised comments he made on an American podcast in February.Introducing the song STFU!, she said: I wrote this next song because I was sick and tired of microaggressions. So, tonight, this song goes out to a white man who watches [pornography series] Ghetto Gaggers and mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters. I've had enough." Continue reading...

Recommendations from independent pay review bodies could be rejected by PM if he deems them unaffordableUnions have expressed outrage over reports the prime minister plans to block public sector wage increases owing to fears about pushing up UK inflation, which remains worse than in other leading economies.Recommendations from the independent pay review bodies could be overruled by Rishi Sunak if they are considered unaffordable, the Times reported, because of concerns they could set off a wage-price spiral". Continue reading...

State governments fear lack of insurance means churches will withdraw out-of-home care and youth homelessness services

Latest vehicle from Build Your Dreams, which in less than a year has become our second-biggest electric vehicle seller, has a starting price of $38,890

In the southern Russian city, the Wagner group boasted of taking key buildings without firing a shot amid an uneasy calmAs forces from Wagner occupied key buildings in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don in Russia on Saturday, some local residents met them as heroes, bringing them water and sweets even as Russian president Vladimir Putin decried their armed insurrection as a stab in the back".Finally, we can welcome them home," said Evgeny, 36, a supporter of the war who has been among those crowdfunding and ferrying goods into occupied Ukraine. The army has been fighting incorrectly from the beginning and they put too much [pressure] on these guys. In Bakhmut, everywhere. And you see what happens? Our own army is trying to stop us from winning this war." Continue reading...

Official TV usually ignores inconvenient news - during the 1991 coup attempt it showed a tape of Swan Lake. Yevgeny Prigozhin's action was different

Officials voice belief that Wagner paramilitaries' revolt against Moscow leaders is sign of more Russian instability to come

Putin denounces former ally Yevgeny Prigozhin's treason' as mayor tells capital's citizens to stay at home Read more: Why did Wagner turn on Putin and what does it mean for Ukraine?Russia last night appeared to have averted an immediate descent into civil war after mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said he would order his Wagner fighters to end their march on Moscow and return to their bases in southern Russia.At the end of an extraordinary day, during which a visibly angry Vladimir Putin had made an emergency television broadcast railing against the deadly threat to our state", Progozhin said that he wanted to avoid shedding Russian blood and would order his troops back to their bases instead. Continue reading...

The mercenaries' leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was once close to the Russian president. Now he is a major threat

Wagner warlord says his mercenaries will return to their bases in southern Russia in deal with president of Belarus

Party's first female general secretary, who has died aged 61, was essential part of team behind party's 1997 landslide victoryMargaret McDonagh, Labour's first female general secretary, has been hailed as a tour de force" and an essential part of the team that secured the 1997 landslide election victory for the party, after it was announced that she had died at the age of 61.Baroness McDonagh, who was elevated to the House of Lords in 2004, was, in effect, Peter Mandelson's deputy during the 1997 election and went on to oversee a second dominant campaign in 2001. She became the party's general secretary in 1998. She had been diagnosed with brain cancer in 2021. Continue reading...

Ukraine said Yevgeny Prigozhin's uprising reflected Russia's full-scale weakness' as western allies watched closelyAs Vladimir Putin responded with ire and defiance to Yevgeny Prigozhin's uprising, later halted by the Wagner chief to avoid Russian bloodshed", world leaders closely watched the biggest challenge yet to the Russian president's decades-spanning rule.Ukraine Continue reading...

Bronze of jailed Wikileaks founder fighting extradition to the US flanked by figures of whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea ManningA bronze sculpture of three figures including the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared in Parliament Square on Saturday as part of the campaign for his release from prison in London where he is under threat of extradition to the US.The lifesize sculpture of Assange alongside the whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, all standing atop chairs, was unveiled before a crowd holding Free Julian Assange" signs. Continue reading...

Leading thinktank finds just 6% have full trust in political system, and most support constitutional reformThe British public's trust in the political system has fallen significantly since the pandemic, potentially as a result of recent political scandals, according to a report from a leading thinktank.Just 6% of the public have full trust in the current political system, while 89% support constitutional reform, the report found. Continue reading...

Russian president gives televised address as Yevgeny Prigozhin claims to have taken over city of Rostov

Referral unit providers warn of overwhelming demand from unprecedented poor behaviour after pandemic lullReferral units for children who have been excluded from mainstream schools are warning that they are full to bursting because of unprecedented levels of disruptive behaviour across the country.Providers that take children excluded from mainstream schools say that after a lull during the pandemic, the situation has deteriorated, and they have seen permanent exclusions rising across the country in the past year. The situation had appeared to be improving with the latest government data on permanent exclusions in England showing that they fell in the spring term last year to 2,200 from 2,800 in 2019. Continue reading...

The cost of living is falling in Europe and the US but is still rising in Britain. We look at the major culpritsThe Bank of England has struggled to understand why inflation remains high in the UK. It has fallen in France, Germany, the US and especially Spain, where inflation dropped to 2.9% in May compared with the UK figure of 8.7%. Here we look at the many reasons for the current crisis. Continue reading...

Groups such as Samba Que Elas Querem, whose rewrite of a samba classic prompted a legal tussle, are taking on the patriarchyIt was a typical Friday night at the Beco do Rato, a samba club tucked down a dark alleyway in Rio de Janeiro's nocturnal Lapa district. A group of musicians beat their tantas, tambourines and agogo bells to an audience of sweaty samba lovers who sang along.Yet something about this scene was different: the band's nine musicians were all women, and the crowd was also overwhelmingly female. Continue reading...

Real stories of people in peril, the Titanic submersible trip to the Thai cave disaster, affirm a collective wish for human ingenuity and spirit to triumphThe discovery of wreckage from the Titan submersible last Thursday on the North Atlantic seabed close to the wreck of the Titanic brought to an end a five-day vigil of hope around the globe. The chances of rescuing the five occupants of the missing sub always appeared slight, but it was perhaps the very unlikeliness of that outcome that increased the appetite to see it realised.In the era of 24-hour news, few events grab the public imagination quite as firmly as a real-time people-in-peril story. And it's hard to imagine a more extreme or unpleasant peril than being trapped in deep sea in a craft the size of a minivan, as the oxygen supply runs out, and there is nothing to do but attempt to control your breathing in a situation that screams panic. Continue reading...

Other senior staff allowed rollout to begin 10 days before Treasury's formal green light, new book claimsSteve Barclay frustrated health officials by delaying the Treasury's signoff on the Covid vaccine programme, amid wider hold-ups by the department in approving the financing for the project, a new book about the NHS has claimed.Barclay, who is now the health secretary, has rejected the claim. But one senior figure in the vaccine programme told journalist Isabel Hardman that Barclay, who was then chief secretary to the Treasury and lead minister on the vaccine taskforce, was a block. Continue reading...

Australian prime minister says it is Russia and its involvement that keeps this war going'. This blog is now closed

Sydney protest was held over the decision to block the building of a new Russian embassy near Parliament House in Canberra

Small number could attend graduation but later be told they have failed as pay dispute affects assessments at 145 universitiesTens of thousands of university students are being left in limbo without their final degree results this summer, including some who could attend graduation ceremonies only to be told later that they have failed.About a third of the UK's 500,000 final-year undergraduates are thought to have been affected by the marking and assessment boycott at 145 universities, part of the pay dispute between the University and College Union (UCU) and employers that has strained relations between staff, students and management. Continue reading...

After struggling through degrees hindered by Covid, those affected by boycott now say they face missing job opportunitiesRay, 21, recently missed out on a dream job at a charity after they were unable to present their degree classification. Due to the marking boycott, they have now been waiting for eight weeks for their dissertation result alongside another unmarked module.It's been deeply upsetting. I've worked really hard, I've been in the library until 3am. Continue reading...

Michelle Lyn Melbourne and Nikita May Bennett's ute found at Seven Mile Diggings locked with their mobile phones inside

Jewish groups decry vomit-inducing' frenzy of auctions before impending law change that will also prohibit public display of items

Exclusive: Backbenchers tell Michael Gove they may oppose bill designed to stop sanctions separate to those set by governmentMichael Gove is on a collision course with a handful of Conservative MPs over his plans to stop public bodies boycotting Israel.A group of Tory backbenchers have made clear to the levelling up, housing and communities secretary they have concerns about the economic activity of public bodies bill, which is due to return to the Commons within weeks for a second reading. Continue reading...

Judge suggests there may have been interference with administration of justice' and government officials could be referred to relevant authorities'

Shoppers for consumer group Which? ordered 1,800 items to test the average shelf life at six retailersFrom out-of-date frankfurters to bashed brie, online food shopping can be a lottery, especially when it comes to the groceries' shelf life, according to an investigation by the consumer group Which?.Groceries delivered by Sainsbury's were found to have the shortest average time left before their use-by dates, according to the items received by a team of 12 mystery shoppers located around the UK. Continue reading...

Foreign secretary describes newspaper report of frustration with Tory party rows with as nonsense'The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has described suggestions that he was considering standing down from parliament at the next general election as nonsense".Cleverly declared he was standing at the next election" after newspaper reports claimed he was considering whether to stand. Continue reading...

Canadian transport watchdog to launch safety investigation; Stockton Rush reportedly emailed deep-sea expert saying concerns were baseless cries'

Jury finds Louis De Zoysa shot Matt Ratana in Croydon with revolver he probably hid under armpitA man has been found guilty of murdering a police custody sergeant with a gun he had smuggled into a cell.A jury at Northampton crown court convicted Louis De Zoysa, 25, of murdering Sgt Matt Ratana, 54, with a gunshot to the chest at a custody block in Croydon, south London, in September 2020. Continue reading...

Boat capsized in strong winds with most passengers feared dead, according to four survivors cited by migrants' organisationThirty-seven people are missing after their boat capsized between Tunisia and the Italian island of Lampedusa, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday, citing an account by four survivors of the shipwreck.The UN agency said the survivors, all from sub-Saharan Africa, arrived on Lampedusa late on Thursday, having been rescued from the shipwreck by another vessel. Continue reading...

The man was taken into custody in London after failing to provide the pin to his phone when asked to by officersNo further action will be taken against a French publisher who was arrested after being stopped at St Pancras station on suspicion of terror offences, the Metropolitan police have said.The 28-year-old man, who was previously named by his employer as Ernest Moret, was stopped by border officers as he arrived at the north London station at about 7.30pm on 17 April. Continue reading...

FSB opens criminal case after Yevgeny Prigozhin accuses Russia's military of rocket attack and says evil' leadership must be stoppedRussia's FSB security service has opened a criminal case for armed mutiny against Wagner's Yevgeny Prigozhin after the mercenary chief accused the Russian military of targeting his forces and vowed to destroy" his rivals.In an extraordinary series of audio clips released late on Friday, Prigozhin claimed that a Russian rocket attack had killed scores of his fighters, vowing to take revenge" and stop the evil brought by the military leadership of the country". Continue reading...

Film-maker who has dived to Titanic wreckage more than 30 times says it was only a matter of time' before tragedy occurredVeteran deep-sea explorer and film-maker James Cameron said on Friday that the design of the Titan submersible was critically flawed", and it was only a matter of time" before the tragedy occurred - as Canada's transportation safety board said it was launching an investigation.People in the deep sea submergence engineering community warned the company that this could lead to catastrophic failure," Cameron told ABC's Good Morning America show on Friday morning, referring to the carbon fiber hull of the 22ft (6.7m) vessel. Continue reading...