World news | The Guardian

Guests will gather on Saturday at Daylesford House in Cotswolds, owned by JCB’s Anthony BamfordBoris and Carrie Johnson are to hold a wedding party on Saturday at the Cotswolds estate of a major Tory donor.The outgoing prime minister, 58, and his wife, 34, will host family and friends at 18th-century mansion Daylesford House in Gloucestershire, owned by Anthony Bamford, the chair of construction equipment manufacturer JCB. Continue reading...

Ukraine steps up efforts to isolate Kherson; war enters its sixth month; EU agrees plan to ration gas useEvery week we wrap up the must-reads from our coverage of the Ukraine war, from news and features to analysis, visual guides and opinion. Continue reading...

Unnamed man in his 30s with ‘a need for social recognition’ faces up to 15 years in prison if convictedA firefighter from the south of France is responsible for a series of wildfires in the region which he started in a quest for adrenaline, French authorities have said.The man, a volunteer firefighter from the Herault region, was arrested on Wednesday, regional prosecutors said. Continue reading...

Kyiv waiting for UN as news about insurance cover adds to hopes of shipments leaving soon

Film speaks with men at a rehabilitation centre in Saudi Arabia who had previously been held at Guantánamo Bay detention campA group of former Guantánamo prisoners are calling for the film Jihad Rehab to be withdrawn. In an open letter, the men express their “discomfort with the content of the film and its methods of production.”The letter was published after the film was screened at the Doc Edge festival in New Zealand under a new name, The UnRedacted. “Changing the title of the film doesn’t change its harmful narrative or lazy stereotyping,” says Moazzam Begg, a former prisoner and director of the Cage advocacy group. “Following widespread criticism, the team behind Jihad Rehab had an opportunity to listen and learn. Yet this has been met with little corrective action or even acknowledgment.” Continue reading...

Rather than clearing name, ruling leaves Vardy with legal defeat and destroyed reputation

Ukraine says Russia trying to hide fact that Ukrainian prisoners of war were ‘tortured and murdered’

Members of Aslef union will take part in most widespread stoppage by train drivers since rail privatisationRail services around Great Britain will be severely disrupted on Saturday by the most widespread strike by train drivers since rail privatisation in 1996.Members of the Aslef union will stop work for 24 hours at seven train operators, halting some parts of the network and leaving only a few trains running on some other lines. Continue reading...

Inquiry chair recommends that more than 4,000 surviving victims of NHS scandal receive at least £100,000The victims of the contaminated blood scandal should receive at least £100,000 in compensation each “without delay”, the chairman of the infected blood inquiry has recommended.With more than 4,000 surviving victims of the scandal, the compensation payment is expected to reach at least £400m. Continue reading...

Airline group says demand is strong despite ‘historic challenges’ at Heathrow and elsewhereBritish Airways has returned to profit for the first time since the start of the pandemic, with its owner International Airlines Group saying demand was strong despite “historic challenges” still facing the industry.IAG said that there was no sign of bookings tailing off in the autumn and beyond – in the face of pessimistic forecasts from its main airport base, Heathrow – and that demand for the most lucrative transatlantic routes was continuing to grow. Continue reading...

Ukraine steps up campaign to retake Russian-controlled regions in south; Kyiv accuses Russia of a war crime over the deaths of more than 40 prisoners of war

Tory leadership candidates have clashed bitterly but many pressing matters have been overlookedRishi Sunak and Liz Truss have clashed vehemently over tax and spending, immigration and the UK’s stance on China in their acrimonious battle to become prime minister – but have had little to say about many other pressing issues. Here are some largely overlooked key issues of the contest so far. Continue reading...

Carmaker says supply chain shortages have hit production, leaving hundreds of its supercars unfinishedAston Martin, James Bond’s carmaker, saw pre-tax losses crash to £285.4m for the first half of this year as supply chain shortages hit production, leaving hundreds of its supercars unfinished.The company said it had difficulty meeting high levels of demand for new cars and has been hit by wider supply chain shortages, such as the global shortage of semiconductors and logistics issues. Continue reading...

The Australian’s online youth section, The Oz, published salacious gossip about a royal based on an unverified online rumour siteIt is known as the most conservative newspaper in Australia but on Friday Rupert Murdoch’s national masthead ventured into the surprising territory of highly salacious and unsubstantiated gossip about the British royal family.Minutes after the Guardian asked the editor-in-chief of the Australian, Christopher Dore, to comment on why the unusual article purportedly about a royal’s sex life had been published, it was taken down. Continue reading...

Ma Nilar Thein says people must ‘eradicate this military regime’ as four prisoners executed after closed trialsThe wife of Kyaw Min Yu, a prominent democracy activist whose execution by the Myanmar junta caused global outrage, has urged the country’s people not to stop their fight for democracy, but “to go forward with a victory spirit”.Ma Nilar Thein, 50, told the Guardian that she was heartbroken by the killing of her husband but that the public “will hold our hands together in unity”. Continue reading...

Meyer was ambassador from 1997 to 2003 and previously press secretary to PM John MajorSir Christopher Meyer, the former UK ambassador to Washington and press secretary to John Major, has died at the age of 78 after suffering a stroke in the French Alps. He was with his wife, Catherine, at the time.Meyer was ambassador during one of the most turbulent periods of UK relations with the US. After leaving the diplomatic service he took up the role of chair of the Press Complaints Commission. Continue reading...

New moon will provide ideal viewing conditions for the Piscis Austrinids, Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids meteor showers this week as cosmic debris from comets enters Earth’s atmosphere, before the Perseid meteor shower’s peak in August

Exclusive: Bernard Hogan-Howe has not reapplied after No 10 intervened over his initial non-selectionDowning Street’s attempt to shoehorn Bernard Hogan-Howe into a plum job leading the National Crime Agency (NCA) has ended in failure as the former Metropolitan police chief has pulled out of the running amid a bitter cronyism row.No 10 had the selection process restarted earlier this year after an expert panel failed to choose Lord Hogan-Howe, who became a vocal supporter of Boris Johnson after leaving the Met in 2017. Continue reading...

Defence secretary says Truss is only candidate with right experience after rivals take part in first official Conservative party hustings in LeedsBen Wallace, the defence secretary, has endorsed Liz Truss to be the next Conservative leader and prime minister, giving her campaign a major boost after the candidates’ hustings in Leeds on Thursday night.In the Times, Wallace said Rishi Sunak was a “capable cabinet minister” who “could do the job of prime minister”, but Truss was “the only candidate who has both the breadth and depth of experience” to handle problems such as the Ukraine war, pandemic and inflation. Continue reading...

Administrator’s report reveals how little may go to those left unpaid after collapse of online fashion firmSuppliers to the online fashion retailer Missguided are expected to be paid less than 2% of the £30m owed to them by its main trading entity after the company collapsed in May.The group will pay out less than 1.7p in the pound to factory owners supplying its main brand after it collapsed with long-term debts of more than £80m, up from £57m in 2021, an administrators’ report sent to creditors this week reveals. Continue reading...

The boy, 14 at the time of the offence, must spend at least 10 years in jail after stabbing 22-year-old Bram Willems to deathA New Zealand court has sentenced a 15-year-old boy to life in prison for a murder committed when he was 14.The sentencing coincides with a separate legal challenge to the country’s practice of giving children life sentences, which advocates argue is “harmful and ineffective”. Continue reading...

The 2m-wide hole opened up suddenly on a footpath at Whakarewarewa tourist village in Rotorua, in central North IslandAn Australian woman has been seriously injured after she fell into a geothermal sinkhole that opened up in a popular tourist village in New Zealand.The woman fell into the two-metre-wide fumarole when it opened suddenly on a footpath near the entrance of Whakarewarewa thermal village in Rotorua, in central North Island. Continue reading...

US president reiterates opposition to undermining peace in Taiwan amid tension over potential Pelosi tripThe Chinese president has warned Joe Biden against “playing with fire” over Taiwan in a highly anticipated phone call that lasted more than two hours on Thursday, as tensions remain high over the House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s potential trip to the island next month.“Those who play with fire will be perished by it. It is hoped that the US will be clear-eyed about this,” Xi Jinping, according to a Chinese statement. He also urged the US to implement the three joint communiques that serve as the foundation for relations between the two countries “both in word and in deed”. Xi vowed “resolutely” to safeguard China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity and said this is “the firm will of more than 1.4 billion Chinese people”. Continue reading...

A murder investigation has been launched after the child died from a suspected stab wound, police saidDetectives have launched a murder inquiry after a nine-year-old girl died from a suspected stab wound in Lincolnshire.Officers were called to the scene in Fountain Lane, Boston at 6.20pm on Thursday. Continue reading...

Leadership rivals bid to win members’ support in foreign secretary’s home townDrug-related deaths in Scotland fell by nine in 2021, according to the latest figures released by National Records of Scotland, the first decrease since 2013 but falling well short of the significant reduction that campaigners are calling for.The latest figure of 1,330 is still the second highest annual total on record, and Scotland continues to have by far the highest drug death rate recorded by any country in Europe and five times the rate in England.We’ve had a raft of reports, policies and strategies that say what needs to change, and families are more likely to be included round the table, but it’s much harder to track their influence on the ground. We don’t understand what’s getting in the way of good words becoming good deeds.1,330 of our fellow Scots have died entirely preventable deaths and we should not be celebrating this as an achievement ... The solutions are no secret. We need action, not reports with recommendations that are never implemented. Continue reading...

‘City of Hope’ patient, aged 66, received transplant to treat leukemia from donor naturally resistant to Aids-causing virusThe oldest patient yet has been cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant for leukemia, researchers reported on Wednesday.While the transplant was planned to treat the now 66-year-old’s leukemia, the doctors also sought a donor who was naturally resistant to the virus that causes Aids, a mechanism that first worked to cure the “Berlin patient”, Timothy Ray Brown, in 2007. Continue reading...

Local authority told to offload thousands of assets including council houses in stark report, a year after declaring bankruptcyA bankrupt local authority could have to raise council tax by 20% a year and will be forced to sell off thousands of homes and other assets under “unprecedented” plans imposed on it after it ran up catastrophic debts amid overspending running into hundreds of millions of pounds.The scale of the financial and management chaos at Labour-run Slough council is revealed in a stark report by a team of government commissioners sent in to run the authority after it declared effective bankruptcy a year ago. Continue reading...

Analysis: viewers stand to gain an insight into judges’ decision-making at a time when transparency is being reduced elsewhereAlmost 100 years after a ban on cameras in criminal courts was enshrined in law, the first broadcast from an English crown court went out on Thursday and is likely to have left many viewers asking: “Why has it taken so long?”Resistance in the past has often been motivated by fears that allowing in cameras could risk turning cases into the sort of media circus seen around high-profile US trials such as that of OJ Simpson or, albeit a civil case, the recent Johnny Depp v Amber Heard defamation proceedings. Continue reading...

John Kelly, who Kushner and wife saw as ‘consistently duplicitous’, ‘showed his true character’ in hallway incident, memoir saysWhile chief of staff to Donald Trump, the retired general John Kelly “shoved” Ivanka Trump in a White House hallway, Jared Kushner writes in his forthcoming memoir.The detail from Breaking History, which will be published in August, was reported by the Washington Post. Continue reading...

As Australia’s most diverse federal parliament opened, new members introduced themselves and set out priorities

Redfern Legal Centre says $20,000 in fines issued is ‘unjust’ and ‘sets children up for failure’

Lack of transparency from pharmaceutical companies on anticancer medication has implications for health equity, Australian scientist says

Australian Christian Lobby says it is ‘… completely inappropriate for the new government to prioritise a controversial bill such as this’

More than half of the Covid deaths in Australia have occurred since March and the rate is increasing

Prosecutor reads out messages allegedly shared by three defendants in WhatsApp chat in 2019Metropolitan police officers accused of sharing “grossly offensive” messages in a WhatsApp group that included Wayne Couzens joked about beating and sexually assaulting women, raping a colleague and Tasering children, a court has heard.PC Jonathon Cobban, 35, PC William Neville, 33, and Joel Borders, 45, a former officer, listened from the dock as comments they allegedly made were read out by the prosecution at Westminster magistrates court. Continue reading...

Rafiqul Islam, 51, and Mahiqul, 16, found dead with three unconscious relatives while on two-month visitPolice investigating the apparent poisoning of a British family of five on holiday in Bangladesh, which killed a father and son, are hoping the survivors could hold the key to what happened.Rafiqul Islam, 51, a taxi driver from Cardiff, and his son, 16-year-old Mahiqul, along with three other members of their family, were discovered unconscious in a locked room by police officers on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Judge to release ruling in battle of footballers’ wives over Instagram leak allegationIt has taken almost three years of legal arguments, millions of pounds in lawyers’ fees, and an often excruciating public trial – but at noon on Friday the world will finally learn who has won the “Wagatha Christie” libel case.The case, brought by Rebekah Vardy against her fellow footballer’s wife Coleen Rooney, played out over seven days in May at the high court in central London. Rooney had alleged that stories from her private Instagram account were being leaked by Vardy to journalists at the Sun. Vardy said this was false and sued Rooney in an attempt to clear her name, which put the pressure on Rooney to substantiate her claim. Continue reading...

Richard Howson, Richard Adam and Zafar Khan appeal against watchdog findings that they ‘acted recklessly'Three former Carillion executives have been accused of “market abuse” by the City regulator and could face combined fines worth nearly £1m for issuing misleading statements regarding the disgraced outsourcer’s financial health before it collapsed in 2018.The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that it found the executives had “acted recklessly” and had been aware the company was publishing “misleadingly positive” statements about its finances in 2016 and 2017, particularly in relation to the UK construction arm. Continue reading...

Felixstowe workers vote in favour of industrial action after Unite union rejected 5% pay riseDockers at the UK’s largest container port have voted overwhelmingly to strike after they were offered a below-inflation pay rise, with action planned for August in the latest blow to efforts by ministers to contain a wave of industrial unrest sparked by the cost of living crisis.Workers at the port of Felixstowe in Suffolk balloted 92% in favour of a strike next month, rejecting a 5% pay rise offer from the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company, which their union, Unite, pointed out would be a real-terms pay cut with retail price inflation standing at 11.8%. Continue reading...

Marina Ovsyannikova, previously fined for bursting into state TV studio, found guilty over social media postsThe Russian former state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova was fined 50,000 roubles (£681) on Thursday after being found guilty of discrediting the country’s armed forces in social media posts condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine.The ruling was passed after a short hearing in a Moscow administrative court. Ovsyannikova rejected the proceedings against her as “absurd”. Continue reading...

British Gas owner reinstates dividends after operating profits of £1.3bn, while Shell reports £10bn profit between April and JuneShell made record profits of nearly £10bn between April and June and promised to give shareholders payouts worth £6.5bn as the oil supermajor benefited from the surge in energy prices prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The FTSE 100 company made adjusted profits of $11.5bn (£9.5bn) during the second quarter of the year, beating its previous high – set between January and March – by 26%. The profits were more than double the same period in 2021, and higher than expected by analysts. Continue reading...

Mark Steyn’s misleading claim that jab was killing Britons was based on ‘inaccurate reading’ of report, says Full FactGB News is being investigated by the media regulator Ofcom after one of its hosts made misleading claims about the side-effects of Covid booster vaccines.The presenter Mark Steyn wrongly alleged that having the extra dose was killing Britons and alleged there was a media silence on the issue. Continue reading...

MS Victoria is temporary solution to host refugees but there are concerns about small rooms and seasickness

‘Heart-breaking’ figures are first decrease since 2013 but raise questions over slow progressThe Scottish government remains under huge pressure to deliver on its “national mission” to save lives as new figures show drug-related deaths fell by just nine, or 1%, to 1,330 in 2021.Described as “heart-breaking” and “shameful” by politicians and campaigners, the latest figures from National Records of Scotland are the first decrease since 2013 but still the second highest annual total on record. They raise further questions about why attempts to address what has long been acknowledged as a public health emergency are making slow progress. Continue reading...

Shops have a week to appeal after failing to convince Bremen officials they are not fronts for crimeThe northern German city of Bremen is planning to shut down all of its betting shops after the interior senator said their owners had failed to convince him that they were not fronts for money laundering.Bremen, Germany’s smallest city-state, announced on Wednesday it had issued rejection notices to 32 establishments that had applied for betting licences under a new gambling law, meaning any bets placed on their premises would with immediate effect be deemed illegal. Continue reading...

Arms trafficker Viktor Bout reportedly in line for exchange with the WNBA star facing drug chargesBrittney Griner’s defence team have given the prospect of including the WNBA star in a prisoner swap a cautious welcome, as Russia said talks between Moscow and Washington on exchanging prisoners were “ongoing”.“Griner’s Russian defence team learned about US’s offer from the news … In any case, we would be really happy if Brittney will be able to come home and hope it will be soon,” said the WNBA star’s lawyers, Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, in a statement. Continue reading...

Chief executive announces external review into error and says appropriate action will be takenBarclays has revealed a 40% slump in profits after putting aside £1.3bn to cover a US trading blunder.The UK bank said pre-tax profits fell between April and June – from £2.5bn a year earlier to £1.5bn – falling short of the analysts’ consensus forecast of £1.6bn. Continue reading...

London venue with long history of offering training and networking has become Seven Dials PlayhouseFor more than 40 years it was a place where actors – from legendary stars to those struggling for a first break – could socialise, network and learn new skills. Among its patrons and members were Laurence Olivier, Ian McKellen, Judi Dench, Alec Guinness, Anthony Hopkins, Alan Bates and Julie Walters.But last November, the Actors Centre – a registered charity in the heart of London’s West End – was “rebranded” by its new chief executive, Amanda Davey. It is now the Seven Dials Playhouse, a 100-seat theatre that describes itself as “truly inclusive … relevant, dynamic and exciting”. Continue reading...

HMRC says drop for 2020-21 financial year coincided with ‘substantial reduction in international aviation’The number of super-rich people who live in the UK but pay no tax on their offshore income has fallen by 11%, after the pandemic imposed severe travel restrictions, according to figures published by HMRC on Thursday.UK-based people with non-domicile tax status – so called “non-doms” – in the 2020-21 financial year totalled 68,300, a fall of 8,200 on the previous year. The number has been on a downward path since 2017, with tax experts also citing Brexit and tighter government controls on who can claim the tax break. Continue reading...

US-China tension rising as Michael McCaul and Anna Eshoo say they were invited to travel with House speakerNancy Pelosi has invited senior lawmakers to join her on a trip to Taiwan, according to a member of the House foreign affairs committee, providing the first apparent confirmation of the widely speculated visit.The potential visit by the US House speaker to Taiwan is at the centre of spiralling tensions involving the island, China and the US, which analysts fear are at their most dangerous point in decades. Continue reading...