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Politics
Policy, power, and the news of the day.
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Pilot pulls off Count Binface stunt for Clacton byelection
Plane spends 30 minutes off the Essex coast marking out shape of a bin in apparent tribute to Nigel Farage’s rival A pilot has traced the shape of a bin with their flight path near Clacton before Count Binface challenges Nigel Farage in a byelection on Thursday. The light aircraft spent around half an hour between 2,100ft and 4,150ft above the sea near the Essex coastal town zigzagging to mark out the shape of a bin, according to data from Flightradar24. Continue reading...
London mayor orders council to drop plan to ban new pubs and bars in Soho and West End
Exclusive: Sadiq Khan urges Westminster council to adopt ‘positive vision of economic growth’ of nightlife Sadiq Khan has ordered Westminster council to scrap a policy that would ban new pubs and bars from opening in Soho and the West End of London. This comes after the Guardian revealed the council’s new licensing policy asks pubs to stop customers from standing up while consuming beverages, which it calls “vertical drinking”. The policy is under consultation and also asks pubs to have table service rather than allowing orders at the bar. Continue reading...
Pakistani grooming gang suspect ‘refuses to give date for return to UK’
Rukhsar Ahmed was recently elected an MP in Pakistan while on bail over alleged child rape in 1990s Manchester A grooming gang suspect released on bail in the UK and then re-elected as an MP in Pakistan has reportedly declined to say when he would return to face rape charges. The Guardian disclosed that Rukhsar Ahmed, a former Pakistan state minister, was arrested at Manchester airport in July 2024 on suspicion of raping and trafficking at least two underage girls from care homes in the city’s Rusholme area during the 1990s. Continue reading...
How clean air clubs are protecting Americans from wildfire smoke
Mutual aid groups that gave out PPEs in Covid are now loaning air purifiers and distributing masks to fume-addled communities Miquette Thompson’s home in rural Mendocino county has been covered in smoke all week. There are the nearby Feliz and Woodside fires in northern California, which have burned more than 1,000 acres, as well as the wildfires devastating Oregon and Washington that are sending smoke their way, too. “It’s become not unusual,” she said of walking outside and seeing a hazy sky. Continue reading...
China expresses ‘grave concern’ as internal documents reveal suicide warning before death in Melbourne immigration detention
Exclusive: Serious questions raised about whether Chinese citizen was properly monitored at centre run by US prison giant Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The US private prison company running Australia’s immigration system was warned that a newly detained Chinese citizen expressed suicidal ideation and had a history of self-harm less than 24 hours before she died by suicide in a Melbourne detention centre, internal documents show. The death has raised serious questions about whether the detainee was properly monitored and whether she was placed in an appropriate room, given her state of mind. Continue reading...
Italy condemns Spain’s ‘unacceptable’ border controls as Ceuta fallout intensifies
Travellers caught up in ongoing migration row as Madrid introduces retaliatory measures on visitors from Italy after Rome imposed checks Italy’s foreign minister has called Spain’s decision to impose retaliatory checks on travellers from Italy “incomprehensible and completely unacceptable” as people making their way between the two EU countries were left grappling with the fallout of the escalating feud. Spain started carrying out spot checks on visitors from Italy at midnight on Saturday. The tit-for-tat move came after Rome infuriated Madrid by launching checks on 1 August for travellers from Spain in response to the recent influx of a bout 72,000 people into Ceuta, a Spanish territory in north Africa. Continue reading...
Captain charged after woman and five-month-old die in New York boat capsizing
Manuel Hernandez charged with 13 counts of reckless endangerment after boat overturned in New York harbor The captain of a boat that capsized in the New York harbor on Saturday evening has been charged following the deaths of a 27-year-old woman and five-month-old girl. Manuel Hernandez, 46, was arrested and charged with 13 counts of reckless endangerment in the early hours of Sunday morning, a New York police department spokesperson told the Guardian. Continue reading...
Taylor Swift songs removed from Trump and White House’s social media posts
Rage-baiting efforts of Trump accounts silenced after posts such as a video linking her Red album to Republicans Some of Taylor Swift ’s songs have been removed from videos posted on social media by Donald Trump ’s campaign and the White House, silencing efforts to mock the pop star. A video posted 3 August featuring the US president and the first lady, Melania Trump, watching fireworks was posted this month on TikTok with Swift’s song August. Continue reading...
Chinese electric car sales surge to a record high in Europe
State-subsidised imports from China reach 172,000 in year to May, taking 14% of the market Chinese electric car sales have risen across Europe to a record high driven by strong demand and low tariffs in the UK and a surge in buyers in Italy. Against a backdrop of claims that Chinese carmakers are “dumping” state-subsidised vehicles in the EU and UK to gain market share, the figures will give impetus to calls for quotas and higher tariffs to protect European manufacturers. Continue reading...
A pretty penny: three Banksy artworks cost taxpayers £150,000 in upkeep
Shadow justice secretary says artist should foot bill, while others say his murals make art accessible Three Banksy artworks have cost taxpayers almost £150,000 in cleaning, security and other costs, with the bill expected to rise. The largest bill relates to a mural painted on the Royal Courts of Justice in London in September 2025, where efforts to remove it and provide security have so far cost more than £85,000, according to the BBC . Continue reading...
Most X accounts posting about Belfast and Southampton unrest were based outside UK
Exclusive: Analysis shows 55% of accounts were located overseas – and seven of 12 most-read posts came from US More than half the accounts that posted on Elon Musk’s X about the rioting in Belfast and the civil disorder in Southampton in June were based outside the UK, an analysis by the Guardian can reveal. Of the 8,672 accounts whose combined posts about the events exceeded 1,000 views, just 45.3% were shown as from the UK, according to the social media platform’s own location function. Continue reading...
Moderate Democrat Ed Case defies progressive challenge in Hawaii primary
Case, who has represented island state’s first district in US Congress since 2019, beat state senator Jarrett Keohokalole The moderate Democratic representative Ed Case has seen off a progressive challenge to retain his party’s nomination for the US House of Representatives election in Hawaii ’s first congressional district. Case, who has represented the district in Washington DC since 2019, prevailed in Saturday’s primary over Jarrett Keohokalole, the state senator. Continue reading...
Parents of baby girl killed at nursery fear unsafe sleeping ‘rife’ across England
Katie and John Meehan say responses to campaign they launched after death of daughter Genevieve must be ‘wake-up call’ The parents of a nine-month-old girl who died after being placed in an unsafe sleeping position at nursery said they feared poor practice may be “rife” across England. Genevieve Meehan suffocated when she was strapped face down to a beanbag for an hour and 37 minutes at a nursery in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, in May 2022. Continue reading...
‘America’s saddest murder trial’: mental health in focus in Lindsay Clancy case
Jurors hear from host of medical experts as defence says postpartum psychosis caused young mother to kill children It’s been called “America’s saddest murder trial” and last week jurors in the Lindsay Clancy case listened to mental health professionals, counsellors, psychiatrists, and medication experts explain the circumstances in which the young mother killed her three children. It has been a spectacle that has gripped America, not least because Clancy’s legal defense has been supported by her now divorced husband. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978 Continue reading...
Yemen’s Houthis claim responsibility for attack on Saudi oil refinery
Drone strike comes after Riyadh signs defence pact and Iran issues tough demands to reopen of strait of Hormuz Middle East crisis live – latest updates Yemen’s Tehran-aligned Houthis have claimed responsibility for an attack on a refinery in Saudi Arabia, two days after the kingdom signed a defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan in response to growing regional instability caused by the US-Israel war on Iran. The attack early on Sunday came after Iran issued tough new demands to reopen the strait of Hormuz , and the United Arab Emirates said one of its ships was targeted by an Iranian missile, as a deal to open the strategic waterway remained out of reach. Continue reading...
Middle East crisis live: Hormuz will stay closed until US ‘accepts all our conditions’, say Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
IRGC says strait is ‘a theatre of war for us and not just a waterway’ Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corp said they will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States meets Tehran’s conditions, including compensation for war damages. The IRGC said their strategy was to maintain the closure “until the enemy accepts all our conditions ... the strait is now actually a theatre of war for us and not just a waterway”. Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian has said he believes now is the best time for an agreement with the US. “There is cohesion, strength, and unity in the country, and as far as I know, Iran is considered victorious and powerful in this war,” Iranian news agencies quoted him as saying. Oman condemned what it described as repeated attacks on vessels while transiting the strait , without assigning blame, and said that negotiations with Iran on arrangements for shipping through Hormuz were “positive and constructive”. The UAE said on Saturday that Iran had attacked a carrier affiliated with the UAE’s state oil company with a missile as it transited the strait of Hormuz. No injuries were reported. The UK maritime trade monitor UKMTO said a vessel had caught fire after being hit by an unknown projectile but the fire was put out and there was no reported environmental impact. There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities. US Central Command said on Saturday it had allowed more than 30 ships through for humanitarian aid since the current blockade started . US forces have turned away 53 ships, disabled two vessels and boarded two others, Central Command said in a statement on social media. Continue reading...
Top Democrats simulate election threats as Trump continues assault on voting
Chuck Schumer and other senators took part in exercises in which legal experts laid out election disruption scenarios In a Washington DC conference room last month, some of the most senior Democrats in the US Senate gathered to plan for a prospect that only recently would have felt more attune to science fiction: they started to wargame democracy. Chuck Schumer, the US Senate minority leader, and senators including Alex Padilla, Adam Schiff, Mark Warner, Elissa Slotkin and Raphael Warnock were among those in the room as a team of legal experts offered scenarios. Continue reading...
Body of woman found in suitcase by side of road in regional NSW
Police called to Oallen, about 40km south of Goulburn, on Sunday afternoon after suitcase discovered near Wolgon Road Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The body of a woman has been found in a suitcase by the side of a road in regional New South Wales south of Goulburn. NSW police said they were called to Wolgon Road, near Oallen Ford Road, in Oallen at about 12.50pm on Sunday “following reports a body had been located”. Continue reading...
Press access spat adds to fears of circus around Luigi Mangione murder trial
Lawyers for man accused of killing healthcare CEO Brian Thompson raise red flags about limits on reporters Weeks before Luigi Mangione faces a jury over the killing of the UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson, the hugely anticipated proceedings already have potential to reach trial-of-the-century status. Intense global interest in Mangione’s case is unfolding against a media landscape where news consumers expect minute-by-minute updates, a mise-en-scène now made all the more complicated by social media influencers who managed to get press credentials and often flock to major US criminal cases in search of clicks and money. Continue reading...
Britain is paying the price for failing to invest in its young people | Richard Partington
Alan Milburn has outlined a generation cut adrift by austerity. We must grasp the nettle and rebuild a preventive state Most people think Britain is not working as it should. For young people, the situation is at its most acute: Only one in four believe that everyone in society has a fair crack . Most think the game is rigged. It is clear why the generation who grew up during the post-2008 crash austerity years and in the shadow of the Covid pandemic are downbeat: the level of public service provision their parents enjoyed is gone, living costs are rising, the AI revolution is changing everything, and the planet is on fire. Continue reading...
Andy Burnham to tour Britain in effort to reconnect government with public
PM expected to announce policies to tackle cost of living and indicate intent to help improve country’s high streets Andy Burnham is to undertake a national tour this coming week as he aims to improve the government’s connection with the British public during his premiership. The prime minister is expected to announce a set of policies that will help people financially as many struggle with the cost of living , as well as indicate his intent to improve high streets across the country. Continue reading...
The Democratic party needs to do more than represent wealthy progressives | Dustin Guastella
New research shows that a class gap on the left threatens any winning coalition – but there are ways to address it Debates on the left are typically framed as a division between moderates and progressives, with the two sides wrestling over how best to form a governing coalition. Yet, in many ways, this divide obscures a much bigger fault line: the class divide. The fact is, many of the Democratic party’s ideological factions consist almost exclusively of college-educated professionals. As a result, the priorities of this class tend to dominate the party’s appeals. The priorities of working-class voters, meanwhile, are an afterthought. A new report from Jared Abbott, the director of the Center for Working Class Politics, and Joan Williams, author of Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back, looks at ways to bridge the yawning class divide that threatens the possibility of forming a winning coalition. Continue reading...
Home Office ‘error’ leaves Italian man’s wife with no right to stay in UK
Man is told he should not have been granted settled status so he can no longer sponsor Brazilian wife to remain A 33-year-old Italian engineer who has been in London since 2018 has been plunged into a battle with the Home Office after officials told him they made a mistake allowing him to stay in the UK after Brexit. Fabio, who initially came to London to finish his doctorate and who has built a successful career working on energy and climate change, says he is shocked by the development as he has not broken any rules since Brexit. Continue reading...
Where are the Ugandan boxers? Four are latest athletes to vanish after UK sports events
Team manager has ‘no idea’ why they disappeared, after reports one of Commonwealth Games athletes said they intended to claim asylum Years of arduous preparation and training had come to fruition and the pressure was finally lifted. After competing for their country in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, athletes from Uganda were afforded a couple of days’ sightseeing time before catching their plane home on Tuesday. But when the flight took off, there were four empty seats. Continue reading...