General news

• Melania calls for national security aide Mira Ricardel's firing

  13-11-2018 23:01 via bbc.co.uk
  The first lady's office says the aide "no longer deserves the honour" of serving the White House.
  
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• Bomb attacks in Congo kill at least 12 people including children

  04-05-2024 05:42 via theguardian.com
  
  The UN says two camps for displaced people were hit near the city of Goma where thousands are seeking refuge from fighting in surrounding areasBomb attacks on two camps for displaced people in eastern Congo have killed at least 12 people, including children, according to the UN.The bombs hit the camps in Lac Vert and Mugunga, near the city of Goma, the UN said in a statement, calling the attacks a “flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law and may constitute a w
  
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• Three bodies reportedly found in northern Mexico where Perth brothers went missing

  04-05-2024 05:35 via theguardian.com
  
  Siblings Callum and Jake Robinson and US citizen Jack Carter Rhoad were travelling on a surfing holiday when they were reported missingGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThree bodies have reportedly been found in an area of northern Mexico where two Australian brothers and an American friend are missing.Reuters cited two sources with knowledge of the investigation as saying Mexican authorities had found three bodies in the Baja peninsula. The bodies were rep
  
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• Queensland MP claims she was drugged and sexually assaulted

  04-05-2024 05:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Police investigating after Brittany Lauga allegedly assaulted in central Queensland town of YeppoonGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastQueensland Labor MP Brittany Lauga has alleged she was drugged and sexually assaulted in the central Queensland town of Yeppoon last weekend, and claims other women may also have been similarly attacked.Lauga posted a statement on social media, saying she had contacted police early on the morning of Sunday 28 April.Sign up for
  
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• If Jacinta Allan isn’t Daniel Andrews, her first budget should show Victorians exactly who she is

  04-05-2024 02:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A huge infrastructure agenda helped win Andrews three elections but the priority now for the state – and new premier – is the housing crisisGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastIn the seven months since Jacinta Allan took over as Victoria’s premier, she’s worked to shirk off the impression she’s Daniel Andrews’ apprentice and differentiated herself from the former leader.By all accounts, Allan has moved away from the central
  
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• NSW braces for heavy rain and potential flash flooding after wet week

  04-05-2024 01:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Heaviest falls forecast for Illawarra, Hunter, Central Coast and greater Sydney from Saturday eveningGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastAn already saturated New South Wales is bracing for significant and widespread rain that could lead to flash flooding on the state’s east coast.The Bureau of Meteorology says the heaviest falls will hit the Illawarra, Hunter, Central Coast and Greater Sydney from Saturday evening into Sunday.Sign up for Guardian Austra
  
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• Star Wars’ Mark Hamill hails ‘Joe-B-Wan Kenobi’ after White House meeting

  03-05-2024 23:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Actor brings force of Hollywood to trumpet Biden’s legislative record in briefing that both delighted and bemused journalists“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” But enough about Washington. The Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, who once saw off gangsters at a fictional spaceport, came to the US capital on Friday for a meeting with Joe Biden.Quite why he was in the Oval Office, and what was talked about, remained something of a mystery. A long time ago in
  
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• Conservatives crushed by ‘worst local election result’ in years

  03-05-2024 23:48 via theguardian.com
  
  Spread of Tory losses leads former minister to say there’s ‘no such thing as a safe seat any more’The Conservatives are facing one of their worst local election results in 40 years, with striking Labour gains across England and Wales in key battlegrounds they need to secure victory at the general election.The spread of the Conservative losses led one former minister to claim there was “no such thing really as a safe Tory seat any more”, but the prime minister appear
  
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• Local elections 2024: full council results for England

  03-05-2024 23:28 via theguardian.com
  
  Results from more than 100 English councils, as well as for several mayors, are announced. So far the Conservatives have lost control of several key councils but have won the Tees Valley mayoral contest. Find out what happened in your areaLocal and mayoral elections – live updatesVisual analysis: Big Tory losses but no Labour landslide. What might happen at Westminster?Find your council resultFull mayoral results Continue reading...
  
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• Canadian police charge three over killing of Sikh activist

  03-05-2024 23:28 via theguardian.com
  
  Prime minister said there were ‘credible allegations’ that India was behind killing of Hardeep Singh NijjarCanadian police have charged three members of an alleged hit team for their role in the assassination of the Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the first arrests in a high-profile killing that officials believe was masterminded by India.The arrests come nearly a year after the prominent activist was killed in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh gurdwara on the evening of 18
  
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• Big Tory losses but no Labour landslide. What might happen at Westminster? – a visual analysis

  03-05-2024 23:28 via theguardian.com
  
  Tory council representation has imploded, but Labour’s gains have not been seismic. These charts show what this may signal for a general electionFull 2024 council results for EnglandUK general election opinion poll trackerConservative representation has collapsed to its lowest level since 1998 in the areas that voted in Thursday’s local elections, according to a Guardian analysis.The Tories now control 19% of seats in the 98 council areas that had announced results by 20:40 on 3 May
  
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• Key points as local election results show major Tory losses

  03-05-2024 22:12 via theguardian.com
  
  With almost all council elections declared, Conservatives are on course to lose up to 500 seatsAt the start of a long weekend of election results, the first outcomes have been every bit as dire for the Conservatives and Rishi Sunak as analysts had predicted. Here is the state of play. Continue reading...
  
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• Hope Hicks: Trump was worried about WSJ article’s effect on Melania – as it happened

  03-05-2024 22:09 via theguardian.com
  
  This live blog is now closed. For the latest on Donald Trump’s hush-money trial, read our coverage here. Judge Juan Merchan was referring to a claim Donald Trump made while addressing the media yesterday outside of court.Speaking to reporters after court adjourned for the day on Thursday, the former president said:I’m not allowed to testify. I’m under a gag order. I guess, right?I’m not allowed to testify, because this judge, who’s totally conflicted, has me under a
  
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• Hope Hicks tells hush-money jury of Trump’s control over 2016 campaign

  03-05-2024 21:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Ex-president’s former communications director says Access Hollywood tape ‘was a crisis’ for his campaignHope Hicks, Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign press secretary, broke into tears on Friday while testifying in the ex-president’s New York criminal hush-money trial, hours after she described his complete control over the campaign.Hicks, who cut a skittish figure in Judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom, is a key prosecution witness. She described Trump campaign staffers
  
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• ‘Promising signs’: Greens dominate in Bristol election

  03-05-2024 21:44 via theguardian.com
  
  As party narrowly misses out on overall majority, co-leader says it has won spread of urban and rural seatsThe Greens are celebrating a spectacular win in Bristol, where it became by far the largest party, as it headed for a record number of councillors in local elections across England.Party officials said they believed they were on track to finish with more than 800 members on more than 170 councils. Continue reading...
  
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• Labour’s Claire Ward elected first mayor of East Midlands as Sunak gets boost in Tees Valley after Tory losses – live

  03-05-2024 21:44 via theguardian.com
  
  Party source describes region as ‘beating heart of general election battleground’ as prime minister says Labour threw ‘lot of mud’Local elections 2024: full council results for EnglandAnalysis: Blackpool verdict looks like electoral death sentence for ToriesThe results of the London mayoral contest and London assembly elections are due on Saturday. Labour’s Sadiq Khan is seeking a third term and polls have put him comfortably ahead of Tory Susan Hall, despite jitter
  
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• Congressman Henry Cuellar in court accused of receiving $600,000 in bribes

  03-05-2024 21:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Texas Democrat says he and his also accused wife are innocent amid claims they took money from Azerbaijan and Mexican bankThe US justice department on Friday accused the Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, of accepting about $600,000 in bribes in exchange for influencing policy in favor of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.The Cuellars had made their first appearance before a federal magistrate judge in Houston by the afternoon, but it was not clear how they pleaded. E
  
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• Berlin wants to give away Joseph Goebbels’ countryside villa

  03-05-2024 21:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Berlin’s finance minister says property owned by Hitler’s propaganda minister will be demolished if taker not foundBerlin’s government is offering to give away a villa once owned by Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, hoping to end a decades-long debate on whether to repurpose or bulldoze a sprawling disused site in the countryside north of the German capital.“I offer to anyone who would like to take over the site, to take it over as a gift from the
  
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• Brazil: 37 killed and dozens missing in worst floods in 80 years

  03-05-2024 20:28 via theguardian.com
  
  More than 23,000 people forced to leave homes after heavy rains in southern Rio Grande do Sul prompt record-breaking floodsHeavy rains in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul have killed 37 people, with another 74 still missing, as record-breaking floods devastated cities and forced thousands to leave their homes.It was the fourth such environmental disaster in a year, following floods in July, September and November that killed 75 people in total. Continue reading...
  
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• Gas stoves increase nitrogen dioxide exposure above WHO standards – study

  03-05-2024 20:13 via theguardian.com
  
  Science Advances report also finds people of color and low-income residents in US disproportionately affectedUsing a gas stove increases nitrogen dioxide exposure to levels that exceed public health recommendations, a new study shows. The report, published Friday in Science Advances, found that people of color and low-income residents in the US were disproportionately affected.Indoor gas and propane appliances raise average concentrations of the harmful pollutant, also known as NO2, to 75% of th
  
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• Video of sun’s surface shows solar rain, eruptions and coronal moss

  03-05-2024 20:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Ethereal scenes of flowing super-heated material may help explain why atmosphere is hotter than surfaceThe sun’s otherworldly landscape, including coronal moss, solar rain and 6,000-mile-tall spires of gas, is revealed in footage from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft.The observations, beamed back by the European Space Agency probe, reveal feathery, hair-like structures made of plasma and also capture eruptions and showers of relatively cooler material falling to the surface. Continue reading..
  
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• NYPD issues arrest figures amid ‘outside agitator’ claim at Columbia Gaza protest

  03-05-2024 19:36 via theguardian.com
  
  New York police say about 29% of those detained ‘not affiliated’ with university as more are arrested at NYU and New SchoolNew York’s police department has declared that approximately 29% of the people it arrested at pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University were “not affiliated” with the institution, as the city’s mayor continues to face scrutiny over his claims that the hardline police response was due to the actions of “outside agitators”.
  
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• Detained asylum seekers given Home Office booklet saying Rwanda is ‘generally safe’

  03-05-2024 19:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Glossy promotional leaflet handed out to asylum seekers detained under Rishi Sunak’s deportation policyAsylum seekers who have been detained under Rishi Sunak’s deportation policy are being handed a colourful promotional document entitled: “I’m being relocated to Rwanda. What does it mean to me?”The news came as the government faced a second legal challenge over the prime minister’s £500m policy and it emerged that dozens of asylum seekers were being for
  
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• Israelis voice sadness and defiance over Gaza protests on US campuses

  03-05-2024 18:50 via theguardian.com
  
  People in Jerusalem express little sympathy with anti-war demonstrators, with some accusing them of hatred for IsraelAt the Jerusalem theatre on Thursday night, concertgoers and staff expressed a mixture of anger, sadness and defiance as weeks of pro-Palestinian protests across dozens of US college campuses reached a tumultuous climax 6,000 miles away.The noisy demonstrations have been closely followed in Israel, reported by major media and discussed by prominent public figures. Continue reading
  
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• Quebec premier says police should dismantle pro-Palestinian student camp

  03-05-2024 18:44 via theguardian.com
  
  François Legault advocates removal of week-long demonstration at Montreal’s McGill University: ‘The encampment is illegal’Quebec’s premier has said police should begin dismantling an “illegal” week-long pro-Palestinian encampment at Montreal’s McGill University, as students at Canada’s largest universities ramp up demands that the schools sever relationships with groups linked to Israel.“The encampment is illegal,” Françoi
  
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• Germany summons Russian envoy over 2023 cyber-attacks

  03-05-2024 18:42 via theguardian.com
  
  Investigation finds hacker group linked to Russian intelligence responsible for attacks targeting politicians and defence sectorGermany has summoned a top Russian envoy over a series of cyber-attacks targeting members of the governing Social Democrats and its defence and technology sector.The 2023 attacks, in which several websites were knocked offline in apparent response to Berlin’s decision to send tanks to Ukraine, have been blamed on a hacker group linked to Russian military intellige
  
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• ‘We’re infantilised or demonised’: French students criticise Gaza protests crackdown

  03-05-2024 18:25 via theguardian.com
  
  University students air frustration that sit-ins motivated by peace are being shut down instead of heededJack, 22, a student in public administration, was dragged out of his university building by the arms and legs on Friday, as police forcibly removed several dozen students who had been occupying Paris’s Sciences Po university overnight in a protest against civilian deaths in Gaza.“We’ll keep going,” said the French-American student in his final year at the prestigious p
  
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• Dog gone: Italy bans ‘puppy yoga’ after reports of alleged mistreatment

  03-05-2024 18:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Health ministry rules that only adult dogs can be used for ‘animal assisted’ wellbeing activitiesPassionate yogis in Italy have been taking their downward dog to the next level in studios offering “puppy yoga” classes.But the health ministry has curtailed the growing trend after banning the use of pups to protect the animals’ health and welfare. Continue reading...
  
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• Financial rights advocates ‘seriously concerned’ about how Youpla support scheme will be spent

  03-05-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘Disappointment’ comes after documents reveal only two-thirds of $96m will go to Indigenous victims of predatory funeral fundGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastA coalition of financial rights advocates say they have “serious concerns” about an Albanese government’s $96m support scheme for the thousands of Aboriginal people harmed by the collapse of the predatory funeral fund ACBF-Youpla, after revelations that almost a third of
  
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• Albanese government could require Meta to carry news on Facebook

  03-05-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Communications minister Michelle Rowland won’t rule out strengthening the news media bargaining code to compel platforms to make news availableGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe federal government is not ruling out requiring tech giant Meta to carry news on its social media platforms as well as pay for it, as Labor considers whether to activate and toughen the still-dormant news media bargaining code.The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, t
  
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