Conservative leader suggests remarks in Guardian report could have been taken out of context and he was ‘making an observation’

Asked about the Jenrick story, Badenoch again suggests Guardian reporting is reliable.

Q: Jenrick was making a distinction between white faces and brown faces.

The first day of Gaza talks between Hamas and mediators on Monday ended in Egypt ‘amid a positive atmosphere’, local media reported

• Israel and Hamas begin indirect talks as hopes rise of ending Gaza war

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a globally recognised organisation that classifies the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition, declared in August that an “entirely man-made” famine was taking place in Gaza City and its surrounding area.

“If a ceasefire is not implemented to allow humanitarian aid to reach everyone in the Gaza Strip, and if essential food supplies and basic health, nutrition and [sanitation and water] services are not restored immediately, avoidable deaths will increase exponentially,” the IPC report said.

Discovery of 1,900-year-old headstone dedicated to Roman sailor sets off effort to repatriate item to Italy

A New Orleans couple clearing away undergrowth in their home’s yard unearthed a grave marker, setting off a quest for answers about how the roughly 1,900-year-old relic ended up there – and an effort to repatriate it to Italy.

The remarkable discovery was the work of Tulane University anthropologist Daniella Santoro and her husband, Aaron Lorenz, according to a report published online Monday by the magazine of New Orleans’s Preservation Resource Center (PRC).

Scientists find 10% chance that similar events to the ‘unheard of’ temperatures in 2023 could occur each year

The unprecedented marine heatwave of 2023 was in line with climate modelling, research shows, as scientists warn such events will become more frequent.

The “unheard of” heatwave off the UK and Irish coasts during a summer of 40C temperatures raised concerns that fish, shellfish and kelp would not be able to survive.

Macron has asked Lecornu to stay on for 48 hours to try to win over lawmakers

This is how deep the crisis in France is:

If President Emmanuel Macron appoints a new prime minister, the person would be the eighth premier of his rule.

Prime minister Sébastien Lecornu, who was appointed less than a month ago, tendered his resignation barely 12 hours after the key members of his cabinet had been announced.

He became the shortest-lived prime minister in modern French history.

France’s political crisis is twinned with a financial crisis. The debt-to-GDP ratio is the EU’s third-highest after Greece and Italy, almost twice the 60% permitted under EU rules.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called environment department bureaucrats ‘weak’ - though later withdrew the remark

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Australian government officials are investigating whether a coal mining company is putting threatened greater gliders and koalas at risk by illegally clearing bushland in central Queensland without approval under federal law.

The revelation came in a fiery Senate estimates hearing in which the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young criticised the Albanese government for not doing more to stop the clearing and described environment department bureaucrats as “weak” – an allegation she later withdrew.

Tory leader says ‘nothing wrong with making observations’, after Jenrick said Handsworth was ‘as close as I’ve come to a slum in this country’

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Kemi Badenoch has defended her colleague Robert Jenrick over his complaint about not seeing “another white face” in a part of Birmingham but said the debate should not be about what people look like in the streets.

The Conservative leader said the shadow justice secretary had made a “factual statement” and there was “nothing wrong with making observations”. But she also told BBC Breakfast: “I don’t think this is where the debate should be, about how many faces people see on the street and what they look like.”

Édouard Philippe, a contender to succeed Macron, says situation is ‘distressing’ amid last-ditch efforts to get cross-party support for cabinet

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Édouard Philippe, a former French prime minister and one-time ally of Emmanuel Macron, has said he favours early presidential elections given the gravity of the political crisis rocking the country.

The remarks by Philippe, a leading centre-right contender to succeed Macron, came as the outgoing prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, began a last-ditch effort to rally cross-party support for a cabinet to pull France out of its deepening political deadlock.

Carmaker also announces new financing scheme to give suppliers cash upfront during restart phase

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Jaguar Land Rover has said it will begin the phased restart of its manufacturing operations on Wednesday, more than a month after the British carmaker’s factories were hit by a cyber-attack.

The maker of Jaguar and Land Rover cars has been scrambling to get its systems up and running again after the hack on the last day of August forced it to shut down factories and retail operations around the world.

The former shadow minister insists he won’t challenge Sussan Ley for party leadership. But the spectre of the dysfunctional Victorian Liberals remains

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Andrew Hastie has never been one for the theatre of parliamentary question time.

While his colleagues and political opponents revel in hurling insults and interjections across the chamber floor, the Liberal MP has more often than not remained conspicuously muted.

Company says more roles will be at risk unless UK government supports tariffs to protect industry

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Ineos, the chemicals company owned by the billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, is to cut a fifth of jobs at its East Yorkshire plant, blaming “sky high” energy costs and “dirt-cheap” imports from China.

The company said it would cut 60 jobs at the Ineos Acetyls site in Hull, which makes petrochemical products such as acetic acid, and said more roles would be at risk across the industry unless the government stepped in.

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Labor to introduce triple zero ‘custodian’ legislation to parliament this week

Three major telco bosses will be hauled into parliament today for a chat with the communications minister, Anika Wells, following two outages of the Optus mobile network.

We expect the obligations that are given by the telecommunications companies in putting in place the triple zero service that those obligations are met, and that is obviously what we have been talking with Optus about when this has previously been looked at after the previous outage a couple of years ago.

Palestine Action Group argues ongoing killing in Gaza means Sydney march scheduled for Sunday has prerequisite ‘seriousness and urgency’

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The Palestine Action Group has asked a Sydney court to find that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza, as activists push to hold a protected protest at the city’s Opera House.

A representative of the group and another from Jews Against Occupation were taking on New South Wales police in the state’s supreme court after the force opposed a proposed march from Hyde Park to the Sydney Opera House on 12 October.

Grief and confusion gripped East Java last week after foundational failures caused the Al Khoziny Islamic school to collapse during afternoon prayers

Indonesian rescuers wrapped up the search on Tuesday for victims trapped under the rubble of a collapsed Islamic boarding school in the province of East Java, after retrieving more than 60 bodies, disaster authorities said.

Grief and confusion gripped the small town of Sidoarjo last week after foundational failures caused the Al Khoziny school to cave in on hundreds of people, mostly teenage boys, while they were at afternoon prayers. Most escaped.

Two years on, Israel has said the Holit community can go back – but memories of the horrific events are still raw

Shir Matias wants to move back to the Holit kibbutz but doesn’t know if she will be able to bear it. Now 23, she grew up in this tiny community in Israel’s farthest south-west tip, and its flower-lined paths hold some of her happiest memories.

It is also the place where her parents were murdered by Hamas gunmen on 7 October 2023, and her brother Rotem was badly injured. Their mother, Shachar, used her own body to shield him from the bullets, saving his life in a last act of love.

Air traffic to the Hollywood Burbank Airport would be remotely managed for six hours on Monday night causing delays for travellers

Hollywood Burbank Airport in Los Angeles will have no air traffic control staff for nearly six hours on Monday evening, as the effects of the US government shutdown rippled across the country.

From 4.15pm until 10pm the Federal Aviation Administration anticipates there will be no air traffic controllers in their tower, although the FAA has said it is trying to bring in staffing sooner than that, according to ABC News.

Commemorations held in kibbutzim whose members were killed or kidnapped and Tel Aviv rally will call for hostages’ release

Israelis will gather across the country on Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of the 7 October attack, in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages during an assault on southern Israel.

Unofficial commemorations will be held in the small kibbutzim of southern Israel whose members were killed or kidnapped, and a large rally will be held in Tel Aviv to call for the release of the remaining hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza.

More than 280 delivery workers injured in traffic collisions over past year, suffering everything from broken limbs to lacerations

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At least five posties are injured each week on Australia’s roads, according to data released by Australia Post as the service published video of collisions and urged motorists to “keep an eye out”.

More than 280 posties sustained broken limbs, concussions or serious trauma from third-party road crashes in the past financial year.

Legislation was written by lawmaker whose aide had complained about ad breaks startling his newborn daughter

California ordered its powerful entertainment industry to turn down the volume on Monday, with a new law that requires streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and YouTube to ensure that audio levels do not suddenly skyrocket during commercial breaks.

The legislation, signed into state law by the governor, Gavin Newsom, forces the powerful streaming platforms to comply with existing regulations that have barred television broadcasters from bombarding the eardrums of viewers with overly loud commercials since 2010.

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The supreme court has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s challenge of her criminal conviction for recruiting and grooming minors, who were sexually abused by her former boyfriend and companion Jeffrey Epstein – the disgraced financier who died in a New York prison in 2019.

Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year-sentence for her crimes. She was recently moved to a minimum-security prison in Texas.

Ambler Road project, approved in Trump’s first term but blocked by Biden, would harm Native tribes and wildlife

Donald Trump on Monday ordered the approval of a proposed 211-mile road through an Alaska wilderness to allow mining of copper, cobalt, gold and other minerals.

The long-debated Ambler Road project was approved in the US president’s first term, but was later blocked by the Biden administration after an analysis determined the project would threaten caribou and other wildlife and harm Alaska Indigenous tribes that rely on hunting and fishing.

Man charged as police allege a window was smashed in a rare act of violence targeted at a New Zealand politician’s home

A man who allegedly used a crowbar to smash in a window at the home of New Zealand’s foreign minister “during a protest” has been charged, police confirmed on Tuesday.

Winston Peters posted to social media on Monday evening saying “a disgusting coward” had smashed a window in his Auckland home and left a sign on the door.

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• Gaza flotilla members allege beatings and insults in Israeli detention

• Israel and Hamas begin indirect talks as hopes rise of ending Gaza war

Iran signalled its support for Trump’s Gaza plan, with the country’s foreign ministry saying it supports any initiative that brings an end to the genocide of Palestinian people.

Iran’s foreign ministry wrote in a post on X:

Taking into account the dangerous dimensions and aspects of this proposal, and while reiterating its warning about the repeated breaches and obstructionism by the Zionist regime in fulfilling its promises, especially in light of its expansionist and racist plans, the Islamic Republic of Iran considers any decision in this regard to be within the authority of the Palestinian people and resistance.

It welcomes any decision by them that guarantees halting the genocide of Palestinians, the withdrawal of the occupying Zionist army from Gaza, respect for the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, the entry of humanitarian aid, and the reconstruction of Gaza.

Appeal trial begins for Husamettin Dogan, the only man out of 51 in French case to challenge conviction

An unemployed builder seeking to overturn his conviction for raping Gisèle Pelicot when she had been drugged unconscious by her husband has told a court he “never intended” to rape her.

On the opening day of his appeal trial in the southern French city of Nîmes, Husamettin Dogan, 44, a married father, was asked by the lead judge if he denied the charge of rape.

Man opens fire in Tirana court, killing judge and injuring two other people, and is arrested after fleeing scene

A man on trial opened fire in a courtroom in the Albanian capital, Tirana, killing the judge and injuring two other people, police have said.

The judge, Astrit Kalaja, was presiding during a hearing at the court of appeal on Monday when the man opened fire, police said, adding that the shooter was promptly arrested. “The judge was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to his injuries on the way,” a police statement said.

Hamas’s acceptance of key conditions of deal galvanises momentum but large gaps remain between camps

Israel and Hamas have begun indirect talks in Egypt on a US ceasefire proposal amid cautious optimism that the nearly two-year war in Gaza may be nearing its end, despite deep divisions between the two sides.

Negotiations will focus on the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, as well as the partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The three issues constitute the first phase of a 20-point plan presented by the US president, Donald Trump, last week that aims to end the war.

Some of those held say guns were pointed at them, they were threatened with dogs and deprived of sleep

International activists, journalists and lawyers deported from Israel after attempting to breach the 16-year maritime blockade of Gaza as part of a humanitarian flotilla have alleged being subjected to brutal physical and verbal abuse by Israeli forces during their detention.

The alleged abuses included sleep and medication deprivation, beatings, having automatic rifles pointed at their heads, dogs set upon them, having to sleep on the floor, being subjected to insults and being made to watch footage of the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023.

Presidents spoke on a video call as expert speculates that Haiti could be an area where the two leaders can cooperate

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has urged Donald Trump to scrap tariffs on his country’s imports and sanctions against its officials, as the two men held what the Brazilian presidency called a “friendly” video call, swapping phone numbers after months of friction.

Ties between the US and Brazil have nosedived as a result of Trump’s campaign to pressure Brazilian authorities into abandoning the coup trial of his far-right ally, Jair Bolsonaro.

Canadian prog-rockers will play seven concerts in summer 2026 in the US, Canada and Mexico, after hiring new drummer Anika Nilles

Rush, the Canadian prog rockers whose epic and detailed songcraft continues to attract a large and heartfelt fandom, are to reform for the first time since the death of drummer Neil Peart.

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, both 72, will tour the US, Canada and Mexico, playing seven concerts in summer 2026 beginning in Los Angeles on 7 June.

Janjaweed commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, known as Ali Kushayb, found guilty over atrocities

The international criminal court has convicted a leader of the Janjaweed militia of playing a leading role in a campaign of atrocities committed in the Sudanese region of Darfur more than 20 years ago.

It was the first time the court had convicted a suspect of crimes in Darfur. The court ruled that the atrocities, including mass murders and rapes, were part of a government plan to snuff out a rebellion in the western region of Sudan.

African kingdom receives second group of third-country nationals in what NGOs and lawyers say is violation of human rights

Ten people deported by the US have arrived in Eswatini, its government said, the second group of third-country deportees to be sent to the southern African kingdom by the Trump administration in what lawyers and NGOs have described as violations of their human rights.

A statement by the Eswatini government posted on social media before their arrival on Monday said: “The individuals will be kept in a secured area separate from the public, while arrangements are made for their return to their countries of origin.”

At least 200 people still stranded after unseasonally heavy snowfall during China’s Golden Week holiday

Trekkers have described facing “extreme” conditions after an unseasonable snowstorm during one of China’s busiest holiday weekends stranded hundreds of people on Mount Everest, prompting a massive rescue effort.

Chinese authorities said about 350 people had made their way down but at least 200 remained stranded at the Everest Scenic Area, to the east of the mountain, on the Tibetan side of the border.

About 350,000 flee homes as heavy rain and winds sweep region, while Hurricane Priscilla forms near Mexico

Typhoon Matmo made landfall on the southern coast of China on Sunday afternoon, shortly after sweeping across the island province of Hainan. The powerful storm forced the evacuation of about 350,000 people, bringing torrential rain and damaging winds, especially between Wuchuan in Guangdong and Wenchang in Hainan. Ferry services were suspended and flights cancelled at Haikou Meilan airport.

Matmo, the 21st typhoon of the year, had sustained wind speeds of 94mph (151km/h) and dumped more than 50mm of rainfall in six hours in Chongzou and Qinzhou. The city of Nanning also had high rainfall totals.

Families of some aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla say they are being held without access to clean water or legal representation

Activists from New Zealand detained in Israel after they were removed from vessels carrying aid to Gaza are being held in poor conditions without access to water and legal representation, their families have said, as dozens more passengers from the Global Sumud Flotilla were set to be deported.

Rana Hamida, Youssef Sammour and Samuel Leason were among 437 activists, parliamentarians and lawyers travelling aboard the flotilla, a coalition of more than 40 vessels carrying humanitarian aid whose goal was to breach Israel’s 16-year maritime blockade of Gaza.

Excavators used to remove rubble while 14 people reportedly still unaccounted for and police allege building work was being carried out without a permit

Indonesian rescuers searching for missing students after a prayer hall at an Islamic boarding school collapsed last week recovered the bodies of dozens of students over the weekend, bringing the confirmed death toll to 54.

Using heavy excavators equipped with jackhammers, circular saws and sometimes their bare hands, rescue teams removed tons of rubble in an attempt to find the 14 students reportedly still missing. Rescuers found 35 bodies over the weekend alone, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said.

President said US would turn attention to drug trafficking happening on land during speech at navy ceremony

US forces on Saturday evening struck another vessel off the coast of Venezuela, Donald Trump said on Sunday to thousands of sailors at a ceremony celebrating the US navy’s 250th anniversary. He claimed that the vessel had been illegally carrying drugs and added that the US would also start looking at drug trafficking happening on land.

Trump made the comment during a speech at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, next to the Harry S Truman aircraft carrier. It was not immediately clear if he was referencing a strike announced on Friday by the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.

With Islamist militant group 40km from Mogadishu, a ‘strategic stalemate’ has been reached, but some fear worst is yet to come

One night in early July, Maryan Abdikadir Geedi decided it was finally time to abandon her small shop in the town of Moqokori in the Hiiraan region of Somalia.

Though she had heard of the rapid recent gains made by al-Shabaab, the Islamist militant movement, the 46-year-old had hoped to stay. Since getting married in 2013, Geedi had seen control over Moqokori change hands repeatedly.

Pentagon chief says strike – fourth by US military in recent weeks – targeted boat with ‘substantial amounts’ of drugs

The United States carried out a strike against an alleged drug-trafficking boat on Friday that killed four people, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said, a day after the Trump administration told Congress it was entering a new “non-international armed conflict” with cartels.

The strike, which Hegseth said he directed on Donald Trump’s orders, appears to be at least the fourth in recent weeks. Hegseth gave few details about the boat or the evidence that it was carrying narcotics, other than saying the US had confirmed it was carrying drugs.

Pair had crossed border to support presidential campaign of reggae singer Bobi Wine

Two Kenyan activists have been abducted in Uganda after attending a presidential campaign event for Bobi Wine, the reggae musician turned politician.

Heavily armed security operatives detained Bob Njagi, the chair of Free Kenya, and Nicholas Oyoo, the movement’s secretary general, at a petrol station near Kampala on Wednesday afternoon.

Prime minister praises security response and says government is ready for talks

Morocco’s prime minister, Aziz Akhannouch, has praised the security force reaction to protests over corruption and public spending and said the government was ready for talks, as organisers called for a sixth night of protests.

In a statement, Akhannouch said the death toll in the protests had risen to three.

Activist Jagtar Singh Johal has been held in Indian prison for nearly eight years without full trial

The sisters of the British-Egyptian human rights campaigner Alaa Abd el-Fattah have intervened for the first time since his release from prison in Egypt to call on Keir Starmer to push Narendra Modi to free a British Sikh activist when he meets the Indian prime minister next week.

Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, has been held in an Indian jail for nearly eight years without facing full trial in what his supporters say is an arbitrary and egregious denial of justice by a British ally.

Taliban authorities cut fibre-optic network in nationwide shutdown of communications to prevent ‘vice’

Afghans are living under a near-complete communications blackout after Taliban authorities cut internet and mobile phone services for a second day as part of an unprecedented country-wide crackdown.

The former insurgents, who retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, began gradual restrictions on internet access earlier this month. The measures also affect telephone lines, as they are often routed over the internet.

Telecoms disrupted nationwide after authorities cut fibre-optic connections in several provinces to prevent ‘vice’

A huge communications blackout has hit Afghanistan after Taliban authorities began severing fibre-optic connections in several provinces to prevent “vice”.

“A nationwide telecoms blackout is now in effect,” said Netblocks, a watchdog organisation that monitors cybersecurity and internet governance.

Victims include nine children at election campaign gathering in Tamil Nadu led by popular actor and politician

Police in India have opened a criminal case against the leaders of a party headed by the actor turned politician Vijay, after a crowd crush at one of his rallies killed 40 people and injured at least 124 others.

Local officials reported that at least nine children had died at the rally, which took place on Saturday night in the Karur district of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. Vijay, one of the most popular and successful actors in Tamil cinema, who entered politics last year, was addressing the crowd for his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) party before state elections early next year.

Announcement of deal baffles experts and former ministers, who say there is no sign of any untapped reserves

The newfound camaraderie between the US and Pakistan was on full display this week as Donald Trump welcomed Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, and the country’s powerful army chief, Asim Munir, into the Oval Office, heralding them both as “great leaders”.

Having been cold-shouldered by successive US presidents, this was the first time a Pakistani prime minister had been invited to Washington in more than six years. It was also the unprecedented second time this year that Munir – who holds no official government role – held an intimate meeting with Trump, which many took as a telling signal of where the power to cut deals really lies in Pakistan.