Police suspend ‘extensive’ six-day air and ground search in Nova Scotia, citing ‘no new information’ Teams in eastern Canada have called off an “extensive” six-day air and ground search of a rugged park for a missing Australian hiker. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said this week it had suspended operations after an effort involving dogs, 100 people, aircraft and ground crews yielded “no new information” in the whereabouts of Denise Ann Willams. Continue reading...

US president says he is pausing US effort to guide stranded vessels out of the strait of Hormuz but blockade remains Donald Trump has announced that he is pausing ‘Project Freedom’, the US effort to guide stranded vessels out of the strait of Hormuz, so that he can finalise a deal with Iran, but added that his blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place. Trump announced the decision in a social media post, saying he was pausing the effort for a short period to give space for US efforts to finalise a settlement with Iran to end the war. Continue reading...

Home affairs minister says government continues to refuse to assist the group of 13, who are expected leave Syria soon The Albanese government has confirmed that four Australian women and nine of their children who were linked to suspected Islamic State fighters in Syria are set to travel home. The group of 13 were expected to fly into Australia very soon, the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Strikes came hours before deadline for Kyiv ceasefire proposal and were one of the worst wave of attacks this year. What we know on day 1,533 The death toll from Russian attacks throughout eastern Ukraine rose to at least 27 people on Tuesday, in one of the worst round of strikes so far this year. The deadly strikes came just hours before the deadline for a proposal from Kyiv for an open-ended ceasefire to begin at midnight. Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha, writing in English on X, said: “With mere hours until Ukraine’s ceasefire proposal comes into force, Russia shows no signs of preparing to end hostilities. On the contrary, Moscow intensifies terror.” In the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia, an attack by aerial bombs and drones killed at least 12 people, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram. Three aerial bombs dropped on the frontline city of Kramatorsk killed six people, prosecutors in eastern Donetsk Region said on Telegram. In Dnipro, in south-eastern Ukraine, a Russian attack killed four, while a Russian overnight strike on the gas production facilities in the Poltava region killed five people, including one person in the neighbouring Kharkiv region. Russia announced a ceasefire for 8-9 May to coincide with commemorations of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in the second world war and a military parade in Moscow’s Red Square. Ukraine, in response, announced a proposal for an open-ended ceasefire starting at midnight on Wednesday (2100 GMT), urging Russia to reciprocate. Meanwhile a Ukrainian drone attack in Russian-occupied Crimea killed five civilians, the region’s Moscow-installed authorities said on Wednesday. “Unfortunately, as a result of the enemy UAV strike on Dzhankoi, there are civilian casualties – five people have been killed,” said Sergey Aksyonov, the region’s head. The Venice Biennale has begun previewing its 61st edition, just days after the contemporary art show’s jury resigned over the participation of Israel and Russia. The Russian pavilion will only be open to visitors during previews that run through Friday and will not be open to the public after the biennale opens for a 6-month run on Saturday. The pavilion has organised a series of performers for this week, and had an open bar upstairs near a flowering tree. Curators were not available for interviews. Russia’s opening cost the biennale 2 million euros ($2.3m) in EU funding over three years. The biennale has defended the decision, saying that any country with relations with Italy was free to open a pavilion, a position that has put it at odds with the government in Rome. Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadryova created “The Origami Deer” to take the place of a nuclear-capable Soviet fighter jet that had long stood in a park in Pokrovsk, in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Curators of the Ukrainian pavilion – its third since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion – evacuated the statue from the park in 2024, with the frontline just 5km (3 miles) away. Co-curator Ksenia Malykh fiercely opposed the biennale’s decision to allow Russia to open its pavilion, calling it “a false attempt to stay neutral”. “You can’t stay neutral in these times. You can’t be neutral when people are dying every day because of Russians,” Malykh said. US secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke by telephone on Tuesday with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, according to the state department. The two, who spoke at Lavrov’s request, “discussed the US-Russia relationship, the Russia-Ukraine war, and Iran,” a state department spokesperson said. Separately, the US state department approved the potential sale of Joint Direct Attack Munitions - Extended Range and related equipment to Ukraine for $373.6m, it said in a statement on Tuesday. The principal contractor will be Boeing Company, the state department added. Two drones suspected of violating Finnish airspace at the weekend likely came from Ukraine, which is at war with Finland’s neighbour Russia, the Nordic nation’s border guard said on Tuesday. The drones entered Finland’s airspace from the south and flew towards the north-east into Russian territory, but where they ended up was unknown, the border guard said. The suspected airspace violations took place in the eastern Gulf of Finland, near Finland’s 1,340km (830-mile) border with Russia. Continue reading...

Taiwan’s reputation for tech excellence means it is a favoured alternative source for Ukrainian drone-makers Over the four years that Ukraine has been fighting to repel Russian forces from its territory, its country’s battlefields have become scarred by airstrikes, pockmarked by artillery fire, and littered with the wreckage of cheap aerial drones. The conflict has transformed the economics of modern warfare – with both sides now reliant on these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to monitor the battlefield, evade defences and strike deep into enemy territory. The fighting has so far kept Russia bogged down, trapped behind frozen frontlines, allowing Kyiv to remake the country’s industrial base to meet the needs of the war. Continue reading...

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood join Conan O’Brien to discuss forthcoming album Foreign Tongues On Tuesday afternoon in New York, the Rolling Stones gathered friends, journalists and fellow artists for a preview of their forthcoming 25th album, Foreign Tongues. Before the trio stepped on stage, host Conan O’Brien deadpanned that perhaps, finally, this is the album where the band will “finally make it after decades of obscurity”. The audience, which included Leonardo DiCaprio, director Baz Luhrmann and actor Odessa A’zion, laughed appreciatively. Continue reading...

Settlement, which includes no admission of wrongdoing, covers roughly 36m eligible devices in class-action lawsuit Apple on Tuesday agreed to pay $250m to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing it of misleading millions of iPhone buyers by falsely touting artificial intelligence capabilities for its Siri voice assistant in late 2024. Plaintiffs accused the California tech giant of having “promoted AI capabilities that did not exist at the time, do not exist now, and will not exist for two or more years” in order to boost iPhone sales, according to the suit. Apple’s more “personalized” version of Siri still has not been fully released despite its announcement nearly two years ago. Continue reading...

Unions group wants rate returned from 3% to 8% after big four UK lenders reveal £14bn total profit in first quarter An increased windfall tax should be imposed on the UK’s largest banks according to trade union leaders, after the big four lenders reported almost £14bn in first-quarter profits, partly fuelled by market turbulence caused by the Iran war. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) renewed its call for an increase in the current bank surcharge, which was reduced from 8% to 3% of profits above £100m by the Conservative government in 2023, as banks benefit from the high interest rate environment. Continue reading...

In-depth study also reveals patients from black African and Caribbean backgrounds are less likely to receive timely care People from black backgrounds in England are twice as likely to experience strokes as their white counterparts, while also being less likely to receive timely care, according to the largest study of its kind. The study, conducted by researchers at King’s College London and presented at the European Stroke Organisation conference, analysed 30 years of stroke incidents from the South London Stroke Register, one of the longest-running population-based stroke registers in the world. Continue reading...

Revised indictment alleges Cole Allen, accused of targeting Trump, assaulted federal officer with deadly weapon Cole Tomas Allen, the suspected gunman at the White House correspondents’ dinner, is facing an additional related charge for assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, federal authorities announced on Tuesday. The new charge, which formally accuses Allen of firing at a US Secret Service agent at a security checkpoint, is part of a new four-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Washington. The other three counts are charges Allen previously faced: attempted assassination, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence and illegal transportation of a firearm and ammunition across state lines. Continue reading...

The newly found belief Mikel Arteta’s side have shown has now carried them into the Champions League final There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Arsenal, having failed to capitalise on so many opportunities over the past few years, have suddenly and not entirely expectedly seized their chance. A week ago, their course seemed uncertain, the waters choppy; quite abruptly, the skies have cleared and, the wind in their sails, Arsenal are sailing on towards potential glory. Atlético tested them and they came through it to reach their first Champions League final in 20 years. Whether it’s Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern they will meet in Budapest, that challenge will be very different to this one but the important thing is they are there. It was perhaps inevitable that if they were going to go through it would be 1-0, not just for old times’ sake but because this was an old-fashioned kind of semi‑final, won not through the sort of attacking pyrotechnics of the first leg of PSG v Bayern, but through discipline and resolve. Continue reading...

Serious side effects from vaccines were rare, scientists found in studies funded by US taxpayer money The US Food and Drug Administration has blocked the publication of several studies that found Covid-19 and shingles vaccines to be safe, according to a spokesperson from the Department of Health and Human Services. Agency scientists conducted the studies by analyzing millions of patient records and found that serious side effects from the vaccines were rare, the spokesperson confirmed. The studies – funded by taxpayer money and costing several million dollars – included research examining the safety of Covid-19 vaccines in 2023 and 2024. Continue reading...

Matteo Ruggeri fails in his unenviable job of marking Bukayo Saka, who delivered when it mattered most David Raya Always on his toes to launch attacks and came to Arsenal’s rescue when he was needed. 7 Continue reading...

Green party leader also accused of incorrectly stating he was a full member of the National Council of Hypnotherapy Zack Polanski falsely claimed to be a spokesperson for the British Red Cross while campaigning for Green party leadership, the charity has said. This was also mentioned on his personal website in 2020, where he said he was “really proud of the work we do”. Continue reading...

A home-made bomb the size of a photocopier, a huge ransom and a messy tale of exploitation. This true-crime documentary is tragic On 26 August 1980, a huge metal box was delivered to Harvey’s Wagon Wheel casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, disguised as an IBM photocopier. An X-ray confirmed that the complex explosive inside contained 1,000lb (450kg) of dynamite. An attached ransom note demanded $3m (£1.3m) within the next 24 hours. An FBI scientist, Kirk Yeager, says the fear was that this “metal box of mystery” had the potential to flatten a portion of the city. “I had never seen anything so sinister in my life,” says Mike Rowe, the district attorney at the time. “It was absolutely frightening.” Over three episodes, This Is a Bomb unpicks a messy tale of exploitation and extortion. It isn’t a whodunnit, but rather a howdunnit – a sad exploration of how a father coaxed his two teenage sons into a plot that had the potential to kill and injure thousands of people. Continue reading...

Everything that Arsenal had poured into a hugely impressive Champions League campaign came down to this. It was not about more plaudits, more pride. It was purely about taking the next step, moving to the brink of history. On an increasingly frenzied night, when the ghosts of previous near misses under Mikel Arteta provided a part of the story, they made surely the boldest advance so far under their manager. It is the prospect of what comes next in the final against Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich that tantalises. It was a night when Arteta struggled to keep a lid on his emotions. Ditto his Atlético Madrid counterpart, Diego Simeone. But it only made the final whistle sound more beautiful for everybody with Arsenal in their hearts. Continue reading...

‘Grotesque’ policy is seen as effort to sharpen dividing lines before local elections Coming just days before millions go to the polls, Zia Yusuf’s announcement that a Reform government would “prioritise” the siting of migrant detention centres in areas with Green MPs or councils was certainly eye-catching. “That means areas like right here in Brighton,” Reform’s shadow home secretary said with barely concealed relish in a video in which he paced the beachfront at the constituency that elected Britain’s first Green MP. Continue reading...

New immigration enforcement package could fund security of $400m ‘East Wing modernization project’ Senate Republicans have released a new immigration enforcement funding package that includes a proposed $1bn that could go to security measures related to the $400m ballroom that is part of Donald Trump’s “East Wing modernization project”. Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who chairs the Senate judiciary committee, released the funding plan on Monday, as part of a wider bill the Republican party plans to pass along party lines to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies involved in the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. Continue reading...

Conflict appears to have reached painful stalemate, but leaders in Tehran and Washington seem to think victory is near The month-old ceasefire between Iran and the US appeared to be in new peril on Tuesday with a fresh barrage of Iranian missiles reported to have targeted the United Arab Emirates as US naval forces pressed ahead with efforts to reopen the strait of Hormuz. The Iranian strike on the UAE was the second in 48 hours, and came shortly after the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, insisted the shaky truce which has paused the war in the Middle East was intact, despite the new increase in violence. Continue reading...

Sandwell Labour MPs write to borough Reform leader after alleged posts by Stuart Prior Labour MPs have called for a Reform UK election candidate in Essex to be suspended after he allegedly celebrated the rape of two Sikh women in the Midlands. A joint investigation by The Mirror and the anti-racism campaign group Hope Not Hate alleged Stuart Prior, who is standing for Reform in Rayleigh West (for Essex county council) as well as Sweyne Park and Grange (for Rochford district council), had made a string of racist comments on social media in the past few months. This included declaring white people the “master race” and calling Muslim people “rats”. Continue reading...

Disclosure made at preliminary hearing for civil case in which four women accuse the influencer and his brother of rape Andrew Tate sought written assurances from prosecutors that he would not be arrested if he returned to the UK for a civil case in which he is accused of rape, a court has heard. Lawyers for the influencer and self-described misogynist, who has been charged with 10 criminal offences and is under investigation by various forces, made the submission last year. Continue reading...

British No 1 pulls out at short notice with post-viral illness Raducanu has been absent from circuit since March Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from the Italian Open because of her continued difficulties with post-viral illness, less than 30 minutes after positively discussing her presence in Rome during her pre-tournament media interviews. Raducanu has spent the last few days competing at the Foro Italico, playing practice sets with other competitors and, having received a bye as a seeded player, she was scheduled to contest her second-round match against Solana Sierra or a qualifier. Continue reading...

Revelation comes after report commissioned by department released in response to charity’s FoI request The Ministry of Defence has no system for examining whether UK military action has killed or injured civilians in war, a study commissioned by the department has revealed. The MoD also “does not maintain a central register of civilian harm incidents or allegations” and, despite mass casualties caused by other countries, has concluded there is no need to do so because its existing mitigation is considered effective. Continue reading...

Staff told to prosecute as quickly as they can, rather than waiting to gather all evidence, to tackle ‘climate of fear’ felt by Jewish community Prosecutors in England and Wales have been told to “fast-track” hate crime prosecutions after a spate of antisemitic attacks that the prime minister on Tuesday called a “crisis for all of us”. Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, issued guidance to his staff on Tuesday telling them to bring forward prosecutions against any sort of hate crime as quickly as they could, rather than waiting until they had gathered all possible evidence. Continue reading...

Jonathan Pollard, who served 30 years for selling US military secrets, advocates ‘forcible removal’ of Palestinians Jonathan Pollard, a former US navy intelligence analyst jailed for 30 years for spying for Israel, has said he will stand for election to the Knesset this year on a platform of ethnic cleansing. Speaking to Channel 13 television, Pollard said: “I personally prefer the forcible removal of all current residents of Gaza, and the annexation of Gaza and its repopulation by us.” Continue reading...