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Commission will investigate concerns the state lab failed to test crucial evidence in sexual assault cases dating back to 2018

Katharine Birbalsingh questions PM’s private life and says he does not look ‘professional enough’The government’s social mobility tsar has said she does not think Boris Johnson is a good role model for children.Katharine Birbalsingh, who was appointed chair of the Social Mobility Commission (SMC) in 2021, told Sky News that while she liked the prime minister she did not think he was “professional enough”, adding his personal life makes her “raise an eyebrow”. Continue reading...

President draws parallel with tsar who waged war on Sweden and says campaign in Ukraine stems from ‘basic values’

Former senator’s office manager tells court his offer was ‘filthy’ and that she was sacked after telling him to stop ‘infatuation’ with colleague

Exclusive: The Dogs by John Hughes withdrawn from $60,000 prize after novelist admits he used parts of nonfiction work of Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich ‘without realising’

Former National Crime Agency chief worries civil service reductions could have devastating effectThe former head of Britain’s equivalent of the FBI has said she fears ministers’ plans to cut civil servant posts could have a “devastating” impact on tackling serious and organised crime.Speaking to Policing TV, Dame Lynne Owens, the former director general of the National Crime Agency (NCA), said she was keeping a “keen eye” on discussions about proposals to axe 90,000 jobs and how they may affect the agency she led for five years. Continue reading...

Analysis: reports the Chinese military will get exclusive use of part of Ream base have been denied, but experts say nature of the arrangement remains unclearAt a ceremony this week, Cambodian and Chinese officials proclaimed their friendship as they announced a new construction project. Holding spades decorated with red bows, they turned over soil to signal the start of building work at Cambodia’s biggest naval base, Ream. It will be expanded and renovated, thanks to a Chinese grant of an undisclosed sum – a development that has alarmed the US.“China and Cambodia have become ironclad brothers,” said China’s ambassador to Cambodia, Wang Wentian, at the ceremony. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war hereFormer Danish prime minister and former secretary general of Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has been speaking on Sky News in the UK. He is currently running the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, which tomorrow will focus on the situation in Ukraine. He said:

‘Maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess,’ actor writes, sharing a photo with fashion designer Ramona Agruma

Labour accuse chancellor of wastefulness for failing to insure against interest rate risesRishi Sunak has been accused of wasting £11bn of taxpayers’ money by paying too much in interest servicing the government’s debt.The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the losses were the result of the chancellor’s failure to insure against interest rate rises on £900bn of reserves created through the quantitative easing (QE) programme. Continue reading...

Low-paid health and care workers cannot afford to fill tanks, head of Unison warnsLow-paid health and care workers are calling in sick because they cannot afford to fill their cars with petrol to travel to work, the head of the UK’s largest trade union has warned.Boris Johnson said on Thursday that the UK economy was “steering into the wind” but cautioned against a “wage-price spiral”, as the cost of a tank of fuel hit a record £100. Continue reading...

Recovery follows rescue of four people from Roadford Lake in Okehampton on WednesdayPolice searching for two people missing after a boat capsized on a lake in south Devon have recovered two bodies.Devon and Cornwall police said the families have been informed of the development and are being supported by specially trained officers. Formal identification has yet to take place. Earlier, the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said on its website that the two people who were unaccounted for were disabled. Continue reading...

Wait time for 476 visa, for overseas graduates who want to work or study in Australia for up to 18 months, has blown out to 41 months

Renters in some states are having to sacrifice their pets to secure a place to live

North Sydney’s Independent identifies Lane Cove, North Shore, and Willoughby as potential targets

Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner were captured while fighting in Ukrainian army

Fr Pat Collins says there is urgent need for ‘deliverance ministry’ amid ‘crisis of meaning’ in IrelandThe appeal for help sounds like it was channelled from the TV show Stranger Things. “Exorcist: trained teams needed in parishes to fight evil spirits.”It is, however, the splash headline in this week’s Irish Catholic, Ireland’s biggest-selling religious newspaper. Continue reading...

The largest refuge for Indigenous tribes living in isolation is also a hotspot for poachers and illegal loggers and a major smuggling route for cocaine traffickersIn Brazil’s far west lies an immense swathe of rainforest and rugged terrain reachable only by snaking brown rivers. Wedged alongside the border with Peru, the Javari Valley is nearly the size of Portugal, and is the largest refuge for Indigenous tribes living in isolation from the outside world.“The Javari is one of the last true bastions of primal wilderness in the Amazon – and in the world,” said Scott Wallace, author of The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes. Continue reading...

Mayor says incident where teacher died and 14 children were injured was probably deliberateA 29-year-old man who killed a teacher and injured 14 children after driving his car into a crowd in Berlin on Wednesday had a history of suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was probably intending to kill or injure, German authorities say.“There are no clues pointing to a terrorist motivation behind this deed, and we can also rule out that it was an accident”, said the spokesperson for the Berlin public prosecutor’s office, Sebastian Büchner. “It was probably a deliberate act.” Continue reading...

Collin Reeves’ wife says he bottled up war experience and found Remembrance Sunday triggeringThe wife of a former soldier who killed his nextdoor neighbours with a ceremonial dagger following a bitter dispute over parking has claimed that he suffered mental health issues after returning from fighting in Afghanistan.Collin Reeves’ wife, Kayley Reeves, said he told her his head was “not in the right place” and he was particularly struggling on the day of the killings because it was shortly after Remembrance Sunday, a time of year that “triggered” him. Continue reading...

Two previously unseen short stories by Jackson, rated by Stephen King as one of the great horror fiction writers, are to appear in US magazine the StrandTwo previously unpublished short stories by Shirley Jackson, the queen of gothic fiction, have been released.Charlie Roberts and Only Stand and Wait were both published on 9 June in Strand magazine, a US-based print magazine that publishes short fiction and interviews. Continue reading...

Stats from 2020-21 reveal that the Pointless presenter’s The Thursday Murder Club is the biggest hit in UK librariesRichard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club was the most borrowed book from UK libraries in the year 2020-21, while the prolific bestseller James Patterson was the most borrowed author overall.The Public Lending Right (PLR) data, which collates information on library loans and pays authors for every book borrowed, showed that crime and thriller books were the most popular genres among library users. Continue reading...

Doctors of the World’s report finds bills, often charged incorrectly, affected mothers’ mental health and led some to avoid healthcareNew mothers are being charged up to £14,000 to give birth in England, according to a report on the experiences of migrant women who have been billed for NHS maternity services.The report, published on Thursday by the healthcare charity Doctors of the World (DOTW), reveals that more than a third (37.8%) of the mothers surveyed – who include undocumented, refugee and asylum-seeking women – received a bill for maternity care after their babies were delivered, ranging from £296 to £14,000. Of that group, half were charged £7,000 or more. Continue reading...

Move comes after former president Donald Trump controversially closed consulate and redesignated it in 2018The US diplomatic mission to the Palestinians in Jerusalem has been redesignated and will report directly to Washington “on substantive matters”, signalling an upgrade in ties prior to a planned visit by the president, Joe Biden.What was formerly called the “Palestinian Affairs Unit” (PAU) was renamed the “US Office of Palestinian Affairs” (OPA) under the move. Before becoming the PAU, it had been the US consulate in Jerusalem and a focus of Palestinian statehood goals in the city. Continue reading...

Levels of torture and sexual violence used by combatants against women and girls during the 15-year conflict shocked investigatorsThe full scale of the rape, torture and killing of women and girls during Lebanon’s civil war has been revealed after survivors were interviewed about their experiences for the first time in over 30 years.Testimonies gathered by the human rights organisation Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), documented in a new report, provide evidence of systematic violence against Lebanese and Palestinian women and girls by government forces and militias during the 15-year war, which began in 1975. The conflict saw more than 100,000 people killed and 1 million displaced. Continue reading...

NSW supreme court dismisses Dr Joseph Ajaka’s application to force Nine Entertainment to hand over draft story by journalist Adele Ferguson

Shadow levelling up secretary says Labour wants to avoid industrial action as RMT plans June walkoutsThe shadow levelling up secretary, Lisa Nandy, said she is on the side of both the public and workers as unions prepare to stage major strike action on the rail network in the coming weeks.Nandy fell short of explicitly backing or opposing the planned industrial action during an interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, instead saying Labour wanted to avoid strikes.This story was amended on 9 June to clarify Lisa Nandy’s position after her office contacted the Guardian Continue reading...

Media organisations call on Brazil’s president to step up efforts to find Phillips and indigenous advocate Bruno PereiraEditors and journalists from some of the world’s biggest news organisations have written to the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, to ask that he “urgently step up and fully resource the effort” to find missing British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira.Led by the Guardian and the Washington Post, two newspapers for whom Phillips worked as a freelance correspondent, editors from at least 20 major media and press freedom organisations signed the open letter that was published on Thursday. Continue reading...

Train operator says proposal from I Squared Capital doesn’t provide investors with ‘sufficient certainty’Britain’s biggest train operator FirstGroup has rejected a £1.2bn takeover proposal from a US private equity firm, after its board determined the offer was too low.The bus and rail company said it had carefully reviewed the proposal from I Squared Capital, which first became public last month, but concluded that the 118p a share cash offer “significantly undervalues FirstGroup’s continuing operations and its future prospects”. Continue reading...

Minister reveals details of plan to be formally unveiled alongside relaunch of right to buy by Boris Johnson

The prehistoric artefacts, all made to a similar shape and template, are found in enormous numbers across southern Africa across vast distances

Cartel members given jail sentences in Australian first after colluding to fix dollar and Vietnamese dong exchange rate

Two charged after remains found on Glass House Mountains; Victoria’s health workers to receive $3,000 one-off payment; nation records 59 Covid deaths as boosters recommended by Atagi for at-risk children between 12 and 15. Follow all the day’s news

George cites social media posts by network’s political editor in updated claim, which Ten and Van Onselen have strenuously denied

Treasurer Cameron Dick says miners will pay more tax on each tonne of coal sold next financial year

Sub-zero temperatures also expected in parts of regional Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT

Cabinet agrees to extend mechanism into next year and review will look at supply as well as prices

Peter Dutton calls on Labor to buy two US submarines to fill capability gap despite pending decision over UK and US options

District of Minhang to be closed on Saturday for mass testing, sparking fears the lockdown could be prolonged if cases foundShanghai will lock down a district of 2.7 million people on Saturday to conduct mass coronavirus testing, city authorities said, as the Chinese metropolis struggles to fully emerge from punishing curbs.The city eased many restrictions last week, after confining most of its 25 million residents to their homes since March as China battled its worst Covid outbreak in two years. Continue reading...

All staff at public hospitals and ambulance service eligible for payment amid strain on health system

Paul Dawson says police claims Chris Dawson had anything to do with the alleged murder of his wife Lynette are preposterousThe babysitter and woman who eventually married Chris Dawson had a motive to see Lynette Dawson dead, Dawson’s brother has told a court.In the ongoing murder trial against Chris Dawson, 73, an intercepted phone call between himself and his twin brother, Paul, from March 1999 was played to the court. Continue reading...

Police confirm Christopher Wilson was found on Thursday morning after going missing in Annangrove on Wednesday afternoon

La Luz del Mundo ‘apostle’ Naasón Joaquín García sentenced after admitting three abuse charges in Californian courtThe leader of the Mexican megachurch La Luz del Mundo was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing young female followers.Naasón Joaquín García, 53, pleaded guilty last week in Los Angeles superior court to three felonies on the eve of a long-awaited trial. Continue reading...

President says battle in key city the ‘most difficult’ since start of the war, as Donbas leaders warn Ukrainian forces have been pushed to city’s outskirts

Tribunal finds her offending was ‘directly related’ to factors including sexual abuse when she was in the care of Australian authoritiesA New Zealand-born woman has successfully appealed being deported from Australia under its controversial “501” migration law after a tribunal found her offending was directly related to being abused in Australian state care as a child.The woman, whose name is withheld, arrived in Australia when she was seven years old with her mother and two siblings, and has lived there for several decades. Continue reading...

Unscripted question appears to catch foreign minister off guard in Turkey, where he was discussing plans for a grain export corridor from Ukraine

Political parties poured millions into advertising on Google and Facebook until polling day as blackout laws only cover broadcast media

Major report raises concern at low intervention by firms and puts pressure on government reviewMore than 420,000 British gamblers lose at least £2,000 a year, according to a major report that warns losses on the most addictive products are “strongly skewed” towards deprived areas.The report lays bare the punishing losses incurred by the heaviest gamblers and raises “concern” at the low level of intervention by gambling companies to prevent them suffering harm. Continue reading...