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Report says British-Egyptian writer held for expressing political views and should be released without delayThe Britsh-Egyptian human rights activist and writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah is being illegally detained by the Egyptian government, an independent UN panel has found after an 18-month investigation.He is being held in a Cairo jail while his mother, Laila Soueif, based in Britain, is on hunger strike. She is holding a daily one-hour vigil outside Downing Street, the limit her health and weight loss allows. She is on day 241 of the hunger strike, and her body weight has halved. Continue reading...

Labor MP Ed Husic reiterates support for targeted sanctions to oppose Israel's actions in Gaza. Follow today's news live

Lord Duncan of Springbank is the fourth peer to face a parliamentary inquiry after Guardian reportingThe House of Lords watchdog has launched an investigation into a Conservative peer who helped to secure a meeting with a government minister for a Canadian nuclear technology company he was advising.The watchdog will examine evidence that Ian Duncan potentially breached parliamentary rules when he facilitated an introduction between the minister and the company's chief executive while he was on the company's advisory board. Continue reading...

Biggest child abuse trial in French history reveals decades of medical oversight failuresA former French surgeon is expected to be sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for the sexual abuse of hundreds of patients mostly aged under 15, as the biggest child abuse trial in French history ends.Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, worked as a digestive surgeon in public and private hospitals across Brittany and the west of France, often operating on children with appendicitis. Continue reading...

Murray Watt will approve the extension of one of the world's biggest liquified natural gas projects from 2030 to 2070

Australian woman, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder after a mushroom lunch at her house in regional Victoria in 2023. Follow live updates

Sussan Ley and David Littleproud announce shadow ministry after reuniting parties after brief split

Policy will eventually right itself, adds Mark Preston, who heads Duke of Westminster's property groupDonald Trump's global tariff trade war is nonsense and stupid" and will damage every country in the world, including the US, the boss of one of Britain's most powerful property companies has said.Mark Preston, chief executive of the 348-year-old Grosvenor Group, controlled by the Duke of Westminster, said he was convinced" that the president's sweeping tariff policies would ultimately be removed. Continue reading...

Estimated 16,000 litres of petroleum products spilled into Indian ocean on 8 May during decommissioning works at Griffin field

Times newspaper cites letter from chiefs of police and security agencies to justice ministry, while joint article calls for serious investment' in law and orderPolice chiefs and MI5 have called for the government to give them enough funding amid pressures from the latest plans to release prisoners early.The heads of the Metropolitan police, MI5 and the National Crime Agency were among those who warned that plans to release prisoners early could be of net detriment to public safety" in a letter to the justice ministry, the Times reported. Continue reading...

Glyphosate, a pesticide linked to cancer, found at very high levels in menstrual products in the UK, according to reportToxic pesticide levels have been found in tampons at levels 40 times higher than the legal limit for drinking water.Traces of glyphosate, a pesticide linked to cancer, has been found at very high levels in menstrual products, according to a report by the Pesticide Action Network UK (Pan UK), the Women's Environmental Network and the Pesticide Collaboration. Continue reading...

Judaism has at its heart the idea that we grapple with one another,' says Rabbi Josh Levy after historic UK merger of Liberal and Reform traditionsCharley Baginsky's pink hair and piercings do not conform to the popular image of a rabbi, but her personal choices speak to the cornerstone of inclusivity on which a new British Jewish movement stands.In a historic step that could redefine British Judaism, the Liberal and Reform traditions in the UK merged earlier this month to form Progressive Judaism, with each group voting 95% in favour of uniting. Baginsky co-leads the movement with Rabbi Josh Levy, a self-confessed middle-aged man with a beard". Continue reading...

Those opposed to exclusive Sydney private school admitting girls from 2026 suffer loss in NSW supreme court

Acting deputy commissioner Mark Kelly tells coroner that Queensland's existing Mental Health Act causes confusion'

Marion council votes to seek state government approval for battery factory in Adelaide despite hundreds of submissions opposing it

Liberal party leader Sussan Ley expected to unveil her new shadow cabinet later on Wednesday

Rate of people moving to Australia's regions increases by more than 10% in March quarter

Senator makes complaint about colleague's behaviour at function, which she alleges was sexual and racial in nature

In her first interview since joining the frontbench, Jess Walsh pledges to withdraw subsidies from businesses that put profit before safety

Banks say every day 7,000 incidents take place where scammers get people to disclose unique set of numbersBanks are reporting a surge in a type of fraud where customers are tricked into disclosing online login passcodes they are sent, which has helped to fuel a 22% jump in crimes where scammers go shopping using people's stolen details.The banking body UK Finance revealed that remote purchase" fraud hit its highest-ever level in 2024, with almost 2.6m cases logged, which works out at more than 7,000 incidents a day, or almost five a minute. Continue reading...

Capricorn Clark takes stand at sex-trafficking trial of music mogul who has pleaded not guilty to all chargesThe federal sex-trafficking trial of Sean Diddy" Combs resumed on Tuesday, with his former employee testifying that the music mogul repeatedly threatened her and once forced her to accompany him to the home of rapper Scott Mescudi, known as Kid Cudi, who Combs allegedly said he was going to kill".Combs, 55, is facing charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs was arrested in September 2024 and has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. Continue reading...

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, chosen by Israel, unprepared for thousands of hungry Palestinians, leading staff to abandon postsIsraeli troops have opened fire near thousands of hungry Palestinians as a logistics group chosen by Israel to ship food into Gaza lost control of its distribution centre on its second day of operations.An 11-week total siege and a continuing tight Israel blockade mean most people in Gaza are desperately hungry. Hundreds of thousands walked through Israeli military lines to reach the new distribution centre in Rafah on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Sheriff advises people to stay vigilant, lock your house' after Grant Hardin, convicted of murder and rape, escapedAs law officers search Arkansas' rugged Ozark mountains for a former police chief and convicted killer who escaped prison this weekend, the sister of one of his victims is on edge.Grant Hardin, the former police chief in the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, was serving lengthy sentences for murder and rape and became known as the Devil in the Ozarks". Continue reading...

IMF suggests chancellor could refine fiscal rules, but some fear policing and social housing face spending cutsThe Treasury is in a standoff with some ministers over proposed cuts to public services including policing and social housing, as the International Monetary Fund suggested the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, could give herself more flexibility to hit her fiscal rules.Senior police figures have raised concerns about the upcoming spending review with ministers, the Guardian understands. Chief officers from some of England and Wales' biggest forces argue they cannot take further budget cuts. Continue reading...

While delay has sparked anxiety among MPs, former PM says ministers need time to secure funding for flagship strategy

Merseyside police say man also arrested on suspicion of driving while unfit through drugs; incident resulted in 65 casualties

Prime minister over 2006-09 and former Likud member says Palestinian victims are at monstrous proportions'The former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, has said that Israel is committing war crimes" in Gaza, saying thousands of innocent Palestinians are being killed, as well as many Israeli soldiers".Olmert, who served as the 12th prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, wrote in an opinion piece for the Israeli newspaper and website Haaretz that the government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and with no chances of success". Continue reading...

Registrations for new vehicles in April drop to half 2024 figure despite a broader rise in battery electric carsSales of new Tesla electric cars are sliding across Europe, data suggests, amid a political backlash against its billionaire chief executive, Elon Musk.The figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) showed registrations for new Teslas halved in April compared to the same month a year earlier, despite a broader rise in battery electric vehicles overall. Continue reading...

Decision was initially announced in February by Milei following Trump's footstepsArgentina has ratified its decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) during a visit to Buenos Aires by the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.The decision to pull out of the WHO was initially announced in February by Argentina's president, Javier Milei, following in the footsteps of his US counterpart Donald Trump who had said in January the United States would withdraw. Continue reading...

Industry figures say conditions are worse now than before the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020Black British TV makers are fighting over scraps" because of the lack of opportunities, industry figures have said, arguing that conditions are worse now than before the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020.The Guardian spoke to Black British executives, producers, directors and writers who said their industry had not fundamentally changed after the racial reckoning that was triggered after George Floyd's murder five years ago. Continue reading...

Former senior Treasury official Paul Tilley says it is well understood' equity issues with superannuation need to be addressed

Arnold Bloch Leibler will argue Income Tax Assessment Act anachronistic' and has not kept pace with structure of modern families

Rising costs, the Covid pandemic and an ageing population all played a part in the hospital giant's collapse, which has prompted debate about the sector's future

Attacks in state of Benue latest wave of violence amid conflict between Fulani herders and Indigenous farmersForty-two people have been killed in four communities in central Nigeria in attacks blamed on itinerant herders, in the latest wave of violence that continues to upend life in the rural region.Reuters reports quote a local official, Victor Omnin, chair of the Gwer West local government area in Benue state, as saying 10 people were killed in a Saturday attack on the villages of Tyolaha and Tse-Ubiam. Thirty-two others were killed the following day in a separate attack in the nearby Ahume and Aondona villages. Continue reading...

Research institute says costs of plan to exclude those earning less than 20k from the tax will dwarf those of party's winter fuel and two-child benefit changesThe co-leader of the Green party of England and Wales, Adrian Ramsay, has renewed his call for Russia to face greater sanctions. Posting to social media, the MP for Waveney Valley said Putin has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian civilians because he thinks he'll face no consequences. Much tougher sanctions are urgently needed to bring him into serious peace talks to end this horrific war."As well as appearing on the media round today, shadow chancellor Mel Stride has written for the Daily Mail, saying that the Conservatives continue to back the two-child benefit cap. Continue reading...

Blaze scorches 3 sq km, hitting a civil war-era site as crews battle flames near fire-hit RuidosoA wildfire swept through portions of a civil war-era fort and historical site in southern New Mexico on Monday, forcing the evacuations of campgrounds and a horse ranch.The fire damaged structures at Fort Stanton historical site built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and a gym erected by Germans interned at the site during World War II after their ship sank. Continue reading...

A pro-choice movement, symbolized by a green handkerchief, has swept through Latin America, where abortion is punishable by lawBelen ended up in jail after suffering a spontaneous miscarriage. Unaware that she was pregnant, the 25-year-old went to seek medical care at a hospital in Argentina's northern province of Tucuman when she suffered abdominal pain.

President paid tribute to fallen soldiers at Arlington cemetery, and also veered off into rally-style remarksDonald Trump honored the sacrifices of US military veterans in the traditional presidential Memorial Day speech at Arlington national cemetery, but also peppered his address on Monday with partisan political asides while talking up his own plans and achievements.The US president laid a wreath and paid tribute to fallen soldiers and gave accounts of battlefield courage as tradition dictates, from prepared remarks, after saluting alongside his vice-president, JD Vance and defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who both served in Iraq. Continue reading...

Fast-food chain's plan on back of booming fried chicken market includes opening 500 new restaurantsKFC is to invest almost 1.5bn and create thousands of jobs in the UK and Ireland over the next five years, as the fast-food chain seeks to capitalise on the booming popularity of fried chicken.The chain, which is celebrating its 60th year of operations in the UK, said it plans to invest 1.49bn to grow and upgrade its existing 1,000-outlet estate. Continue reading...

Independent MP for Kiama has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting a 24-year-old in 2015 and an 18-year-old in 2013

Premier says he is disappointed' after Rosehill decision and it feels like a golden opportunity has slipped through our fingers'

Health official calls iGAS an absolutely devastating illness' that can result in catastrophic' outcomes

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A man has been arrested after a car ploughed into the crowd at Liverpool FC's Premier League victory parade

Man restrained by police after placing items in clothing and stopped breathing while still in supermarket

Exclusive: Victorian premier confronted at Labor caucus meeting after budget forecasts $5.9bn in taxes from poker machines over next four yearsThe Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has faced a backlash from really upset" Labor MPs after her government delayed key reforms designed to reduce gambling harm from poker machines, with one MP confronting her at a caucus meeting.Last year, the government introduced a bill to parliament to set up cashless gaming, with a trial to begin at 40 venues in mid-2025, but it has stalled for months. Continue reading...

Australian woman, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder after a mushroom lunch at her house in regional Victoria in 2023. Follow live updates

Gersham Williams, 74, was deported to Jamaica in 2016 but should have been exempt from order, Home Office decidesA Windrush generation man who was wrongly excluded from the UK by the Home Office has had his deportation order revoked in the second case of its kind to come to light in the space of a week.Gersham Williams, 74, who first arrived in the UK in 1961 at the age of 10, was deported in August 2016 after being convicted of and serving a sentence in relation to a firearms conspiracy conviction. Continue reading...

Lawsuit by 11,000 claimants calling for 6,000 a truck compensation follows 2016 EU ruling manufacturers were guilty of long-term price-fixingThe UK's largest truck maker has been accused of stringing out" legal proceedings to deny justice" to about 11,000 truck hauliers seeking compensation for the manufacturers' historical price fixing.The comments from the head of the Road Haulage Association (RHA) came almost nine years after the world's largest truck companies, including UK leader DAF, Volvo, MAN and Iveco, were fined about 3bn by the European Union for colluding for 14 years on pricing and passing on the costs of compliance with stricter emission rules. Continue reading...