Iran’s police chief says protesters will be treated as ‘enemies’ and that security forces remain stationed in the streets How have you been affected by the latest Middle East events? Continue reading...
More than 100,000 people have tuned in to watch ‘kākāpō cam’, which captures a rare flightless bird sleeping, tidying her nest and fighting off intruders On an island in New Zealand’s remote southern fjords, one of the world’s strangest and rarest parrots – the kākāpō – is caring for her tiny chick as fans from across the globe watch on. Through the black and white lens of a hidden camera, a fluffy orb with a kazoo-like squeak jostles for food from its mother’s beak. The mother, Rakiura, is attentive – scooping her chick under her large green wings, fending off an intruding bird, and periodically tidying her nest. Continue reading...
Hungary PM Viktor Orbán orders cash and gold shipment be held for up to 60 days. Moscow and Kyiv both claim battlefield gains. What we know on day 1,476 The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has ordered that a shipment of Ukrainian cash and gold seized last week by Hungarian authorities be held in custody for up to 60 days while his country’s tax authority investigates the case. The gold and the money was being transported through Hungary by road when Hungary seized it last Thursday. Authorities said they suspected money laundering. The shipment included $40m and 35m euros in cash, as well as 9kgs (19.8 pounds) of gold worth about $82m, based on current rates. The seizure followed a dispute over gas supplies, in which Hungary and Slovakia accused Kyiv of deliberately stalling on repairs to an oil pipeline after it was hit in an apparent Russian drone attack. The seizure has outraged Ukrainian authorities who accused Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of acting illegally. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accused Budapest of “banditry” over its seizure of the bank transport, and the temporary detention of its Ukrainian crew. Zelenskyy urged European leaders not to stay silent about Budapest’s actions. Russian and Ukrainian officials made rival claims of battlefield success, with Ukraine saying it pushed Moscow’s forces back across places on the frontline and the Kremlin insisting Russia’s invasion is making progress. Ukrainian forces have recently retaken nearly all the territory of the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk industrial region during a counteroffensive, driving Russian troops out of more than 400 sq kilometres (150 sq miles), Maj Gen Oleksandr Komarenko claimed to media outlet RBC-Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, claimed on Tuesday that Russian forces have extended their gains in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, whose capture Moscow has made one of the goals of its invasion. Ukraine controlled about 25% of the Donbas six months ago, but it now holds just 15% to 17%, Putin claimed. The US has proposed another round of Russia-Ukraine talks, mediated by Washington, Zelenskyy said on Tuesday. The talks could be held in Switzerland or Turkey, he said, after initial plans for a meeting in the United Arab Emirates was disrupted by the US-Israeli war on Iran. Zelenskyy said Ukraine-Russia PoW swaps could be on the agenda. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Tuesday: “The conflict in Iran must not obstruct the peace efforts for Ukraine.” Moscow’s deportation and forcible transfer of thousands of children from Ukraine to Russia amounts to a crime against humanity, a UN team of investigators said on Tuesday. The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said it had evidence leading it to conclude that “Russian authorities have committed the crimes against humanity of deportation and forcible transfer, as well as of enforced disappearance of children”. The inquiry said Russia had deported or transferred “thousands” of children from occupied areas of Ukraine, of which it had so far confirmed 1,205 cases. “Four years on, 80% of the children deported or transferred in the cases investigated by the commission have not returned,” it said. Ukrainian forces struck a key plant producing missile components on Tuesday in Russia’s border region of Bryansk, Zelenskyy said. Ukraine’s military said British Storm Shadow missiles were deployed against the Kremniy El factory. It said the facility produced critical missile components. The governor of Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, said on Telegram six civilians were killed and 37 injured. A Russian strike on the eastern Ukrainian frontline city of Sloviansk killed four people and injured 16 others, local governor Vadym Filashkin said on Tuesday. Filashkin said Russia had dropped three guided bombs on the city, and that a 14-year-old girl was among those wounded. A decision by the Venice Biennale to allow Russia to participate in this year’s event came under fire from the EU on Tuesday, which warned it could cut funding. “We strongly condemn the decision” and are looking at taking action, including suspending an EU grant to the organising body, two top members of the European Commission said in a statement. Kyiv last weekend called on the Biennale to reverse its decision and to exclude Russia, as it had done at the last two Venice art exhibitions, in 2022 and 2024. Continue reading...
Metropolitan police sought prohibition of demonstration planned for Sunday Shabana Mahmood has approved a request from the Metropolitan police to ban a pro-Palestinian march planned for Sunday “to prevent serious public disorder”. The annual Al Quds Day march in London had drawn criticism over apparent support for the Iranian regime after its organisers expressed support for the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Continue reading...
It’s refreshing to see him dial down the ignorant-ingenue approach and go harder than usual. But there is too little examination of how online misogyny affects those who didn’t choose to be part of it He’s a bit late to the party, is the first thought that crosses your mind when faced with the prospect of 90 minutes of Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere. I’ve lost count of the number of documentaries there have been on either specific leading lights in the lucrative online misogyny business, such as Andrew Tate, or the general phenomenon (the latter most recently by James Blake with Men of the Manosphere). Still, can a subject really be said to have been “done” until we have seen what Louis T makes of it? Evidently not, so here he is, repeating his shtick as he covers ground that other less high-profile documentarians have done before him. To be fair, he approaches his interviewees with a slightly harder, less ignorant-ingenue vibe than usual. This is pleasing on many levels. I find the latter quite an effortful pose and increasingly hard to endure, and he rightly intuits that the full version wouldn’t fly here. It’s also simply getting old. We know he is an intelligent man who lives in this world – the silent supposed bafflement and dependence on giving people enough rope to hang themselves, which are such a large part of his arsenal, look like increasingly feeble weapons when the matters are of such increasing importance in all of our lives. Continue reading...
The furore over not singing their anthem at the Asian Cup was only the start of the drama as players weighed up a chance to seek asylum amid uncertainty about their fate back home Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Rarely has a first touch carried so much consequence. As the Philippines’ second goal sailed untouched into the back of the net, sealing their victory, the clock started ticking for their opponents: the Iranian women’s team were now out of the Asian Cup tournament. Continue reading...
Goalkeeper replaced in 17th minute of defeat by Atlético ‘It was necessary to preserve the guy, preserve the team’ Igor Tudor insisted that giving the 22-year-old Antonin Kinsky just his second start of the season and then taking him off again in the 17th minute of Tottenham’s humiliating 5-2 defeat at Atlético Madrid was the right decision, with the interim head coach saying he did so to protect the goalkeeper. Kinsky, playing in place of Guglielmo Vicario, was withdrawn after two dreadful errors handed Atlético the first and third goals, with his teammates Connor Gallagher, Dominic Solanke and João Palhinha following up the tunnel to offer their support. Continue reading...
World No 1 wins 6-2, 6-4 against Japanese Australian qualifier Talia Gibson stuns Paolini Aryna Sabalenka eased past Naomi Osaka 6-2, 6-4 to reach the Indian Wells quarter-finals while the fourth seed, Alexander Zverev, progressed to the last eight in the men’s event. Sabalenka and Osaka, both four-time grand slam title winners, were meeting for the first time since 2018, when the Japanese won at the US Open en route to her maiden major title, but the world No 1’s power proved too much for one of her predecessors. Continue reading...
Ivanna Lisette Ortiz of Florida, 35, allegedly fired 10 shots with a semiautomatic firearm into Beverly Hills home A 35-year-old Florida woman has been charged with attempted murder after she allegedly fired shots into the Beverly Hills home of Rihanna on Sunday. Ivanna Lisette Ortiz was charged on Tuesday with one count of attempted murder, 10 counts of assault on a person with a semiautomatic firearm and three counts of shooting at an inhabited dwelling, all felonies, court records show. Officials have said no one was injured during the shooting. Continue reading...
Upper chamber accepts final draft of bill, which offers life peerages to those who would otherwise be removed Hereditary peerages will be abolished before the next king’s speech after a deal was struck granting life peerages to some Conservatives and crossbenchers losing their seats. On Tuesday evening the upper chamber accepted a final draft of the House of Lords (hereditary peers) bill, marking the end of its passage through parliament and clearing the way for it to be added to the statue book. Continue reading...
Court filing claims project leader took money days before collapse Grand Slam Track filed for bankruptcy owing up to $50m Michael Johnson has been accused of paying himself $500,000 (£372,000) eight days before his Grand Slam Track project collapsed before the final event in Los Angeles, leaving athletes and creditors owed millions. The claim is made by vendors in a legal filing in which they have also sought permission to sue individual leaders of GST, including Johnson and the main investor, Winners Alliance. When GST was launched Johnson promised it would “bring fantasy to life” and transform athletics – with track’s biggest stars facing off regularly against each other for huge prize money. But the writing was on the wall after the first event in Jamaica last April was sparsely attended, and it collapsed shortly after its third event in Philadelphia on 1 June. Continue reading...
Millwall close gap on Middlesbrough to one point Leicester out of relegation zone after beating Bristol City Millwall rode their luck to bolster their bid for promotion with a 1-0 win against Derby. Alex Neil’s side took the lead through Josh Coburn’s goal in the 43rd minute at the Den. Barry Bannan’s free-kick was not cleared and the Millwall defender Tristan Crama hooked the ball back into the six-yard box, where Coburn glanced his header in at the far post. That was enough to secure a fourth successive Championship victory for third-placed Millwall, as they closed the gap on second-placed Middlesbrough to one point. The Derby striker Patrick Agyemang hit the post in stoppage time after earlier missing another golden opportunity to equalise in a second half dominated by the visitors. Continue reading...
Due diligence report on ex-envoy to the US in first batch is likely to raise questions about Starmer’s judgment Hundreds of documents relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US are expected to be released by Downing Street on Wednesday. The first tranche of files will include a two-page due diligence report by the Cabinet Office, which is likely to raise questions about Keir Starmer’s judgment, the Guardian understands. Continue reading...
Artificial intelligence is accelerating exponentially before it has brakes, seat-belts, speed limits or a working GPS A self-driving vehicle ploughs into an oncoming car, combusting the occupants and leaving those who survive battered and bruised and staring into their devices wondering who is to blame. That’s the jump off point to Bruce Holsinger’s tech-lit bestseller Culpability, an exploration of agency and responsibility in the era of AI through the eyes of a lawyer, an ethicist and their screen-dependent offspring. Peter Lewis is the executive director of Essential, a progressive strategic communications and research company that undertook research for Labor in the last election and conducts quantitative research for Guardian Australia. He is the host of Per Capita’s Burning Platforms podcast Continue reading...
‘Eye strokes’ that reduce blood flow to optic nerve likely to be side-effect of active ingredient semaglutide, says author Patients taking Wegovy have nearly five times the risk of sudden sight loss of those on Ozempic, a large-scale study has found. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) medicines such as semaglutide (sold as Wegovy, Ozempic and Rybelsus) and tirzepetide (sold as Mounjaro) help reduce blood sugar levels, slow digestion and reduce appetite, and have been linked to reduced risks of heart attack, fewer drug overdoses and other health benefits. Continue reading...
It was a night when the Tyneside passions pulsed; the nervous energy, too, because this was something unprecedented – a first Champions League knockout tie in Newcastle’s history. It was not just the gilded level of the opposition that fired the excitement, the imagination. Eddie Howe was in little doubt that it was the biggest game Newcastle had ever played. Newcastle had to do more than subdue Barcelona, the top team in Spain last season and so far this time out. They had to manage the occasion because it was one that came to rest on the edge of a knife. As the minutes ticked down, the chances so scarce, they knew that one moment was always likely to be decisive. At either end. Continue reading...
Things can aways get worse. Much, much worse. If there is a place below rock bottom, Tottenham seem determined to go there. The Champions League may not be a priority, Igor Tudor publicly declaring survival their only concern, but that didn’t make it any less painful, nor easier to forget. This, instead, will linger for a long time. It wasn’t even the 5-2 defeat that hurt, not really, and it certainly wasn’t their now inevitable exit from Europe: it was how it happened, the opening 20 minutes quite possibly the stupidest, most absurd, most astonishing minutes of football you have ever seen. If, that is, you can really call it football all; this was a dramatic act of self-destruction that ‘Spursy’ doesn’t get anywhere near, both deeply comic and also desperately sad, the final ridiculous scene of a tragedy, the ultimate humiliation. Only, terrifyingly, that may still be to come, because if this the Metropolitano was a testing ground for the fight against relegation as the manager said, the conclusion can only be that the abyss is opening up. There could be no joy, certainly, in watching poor Antonin Kinsky heading down the tunnel, broken and withdrawn on just 16 minutes, inconsolable after glaring errors led to two of the goals that had already given Atlético a 3-0 lead. Continue reading...
The blaze happened in Kerzers in Fribourg canton, which is about 12 miles west of Berne At least six people have been killed and five injured after a bus caught fire in a town in Switzerland. The blaze happened in Kerzers in Fribourg canton in western Switzerland, police said in a social media post. “Several people injured and several are dead,” the cantonal police said. Continue reading...
Andy Ogles said Muslims do not belong in the US and Randy Fine made an unfavorable comparison of Muslims to dogs Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Mike Johnson, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, on Tuesday declined to condemn Republican lawmakers who recently made Islamophobic comments, saying only that he had spoken to them about their “tone”. Democrats and groups advocating religious tolerance have decried the statements from congressmen Andy Ogles of Tennessee and Randy Fine of Florida, with the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, calling on Johnson to discipline the latter. Continue reading...
Billionaire’s artificial intelligence company gets approval to run 41 methane gas turbines at its ‘Colossus 2’ in Mississippi Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI won approval on Tuesday to run 41 methane gas turbines at its “Colossus 2” data center in northern Mississippi. That’s nearly double the amount it has been operating. The turbines will help power xAI’s massive data centers, which house the company’s “AI supercomputers”, or giant arrays of advanced chips, which in turn power the controversial AI tool Grok, the company’s most recognizable product. Continue reading...
Military officer who led an armed assault on the Spanish parliament in an attempted coup in 1981 Lt Col Antonio Tejero, who has died aged 93, terrorised much of Spain on 23 February 1981 when he led an armed assault on the Spanish parliament, the Cortes, in Madrid. At 6.23pm, some 250 civil guards burst into the semi-circular chamber of the lower house during the investiture of Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo as the new prime minister. For 18 hours the entire parliament was held hostage until a negotiated surrender the following morning; the Communist party leader Santiago Carrillo said he had expected to be shot. Continue reading...
The good news for Liverpool is that the situation is salvageable, when it really might not have been. The bad news is that they were distinctly second best for the first three quarters of the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie. Nobody who saw their second half collapse away to Juventus in the play-off round could be confident Galatasaray are a team capable of squeezing the life out of the second leg. There is a nervousness about them at the back, a persistent sense of misfortune about to strike, but going forward they are breezy, quick and fun. Their only regret will be that, having taken an early lead through the former Wolves midfielder Mario Lemina, they did not add a second goal to give them more to defend at Anfield. Continue reading...
Safety checks needed after neighbouring building gutted by huge blaze on Sunday night, with only facade remaining Glasgow Central station’s high level will remain closed for the rest of the week, after a fire devastated a neighbouring building on Sunday. Network Rail said it would not be possible to reopen the upper concourse of the station, where trains depart to destinations across the UK, because of the instability of the mid-Victorian block on the corner of Union Street and Gordon Street, much of which collapsed during the ferocious blaze. Continue reading...
Kay Ivey commutes sentence of Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton, saying death penalty would be unfair as he did not fire the fatal shot Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox The governor of Alabama commuted the death sentence of a 75-year-old inmate who was set to be executed this week, even though he was not in the building when the victim of the murder he was sentenced for was killed. Kay Ivey, the Republican governor of the state, reduced Charles “Sonny” Burton’s sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole this week. The move marks the second time the governor has granted clemency of a death row inmate since she took office in 2017. Burton was sentenced to death for the 1991 shooting death of a customer, Doug Battle, during a store robbery. However, another man, Derrick DeBruce, shot Battle after Burton had left the store. DeBruce’s death sentence was reduced on appeal to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ivey said in a statement that she could not fairly administer the death penalty to Burton when the man who actually killed Battle was allowed to live. “I firmly believe that the death penalty is just punishment for society’s most heinous offenders, as shown by the 25 executions I have presided over as governor. In order to ensure the continued viability of the death penalty, however, I also believe that a government’s most consequential action must be administered fairly and proportionately,” she said. Continue reading...
Opening statements begin in Miami trial of four men accused in the 2021 killing of Jovenel Moïse Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Greed, arrogance and power were the driving forces behind four men charged in the US for the 2021 assassination of Haiti’s last elected president, Jovenel Moïse , prosecutors told a court on Tuesday during opening statements. Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys began presenting opening statements in the trial in Miami for Arcangel Pretel Ortíz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages. They are charged with conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill Haiti’s former leader. Moïse’s assassination led to unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation, where gang leaders have grown increasingly violent and empowered. Continue reading...