UK navy foiled Russian submarines surveying undersea cables, defence minister says

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John Healey says warship and aircraft forced Russia to abandon activity in North Sea in month-long operation

A British warship and aircraft tracked and monitored Russian submarines trying to survey vital undersea infrastructure in the North Atlantic, ensuring they fled the area, the defence secretary, John Healey, has said.

Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Healey said the UK operation lasted more than a month and saw a Royal Navy warship and P8 marine patrol aircraft “track and deter any malign activity” by three Russian submarines.

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Islamic Republic marks Khamenei 40th day with burial still unclear – ایران اینترنشنال

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  1. Islamic Republic marks Khamenei 40th day with burial still unclear  ایران اینترنشنال
  2. Iranians rally nationwide to honour late leader Ali Khamenei  Al Jazeera
  3. Qalibaf: Iran’s only battlefield is defending the nation’s rights  PressTV
  4. Iranians Rally in Support of Islamic Republic  Yahoo
  5. Holding portraits of their deceased leader and waving flags of the Islamic republic, supporters of Khamenei took part in rallies across the country after he was assassinated in a strike  themercury.com
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Bitten by snakes 200 times – on purpose: US man’s quest to help deliver new antivenom

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Tim Friede put his ‘ass on the line’ to help stop snakebite deaths – whose numbers appear to be rising amid the climate crisis

As we overheat and degrade our planet, more people are set to come into contact, sometimes fatally, with venomous snakes. One man hopes to provide an unusual solution to this, after subjecting himself to 200 intentional snakebites to his body.

For nearly 20 years, Tim Friede, 58, allowed some of the most lethal snakes in the world to bite him so he could build up an immunity that could one day be developed into a universal antivenom.

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Four people die in Channel small-boat sinking

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At least 42 others rescued after incident in strong currents off coast of Boulogne

Two men and two women have died after a small boat sank in the Channel between France and Britain, French local authorities have said.

They died after being swept away by strong currents while trying to board a dinghy, according to François-Xavier Lauch, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais. The dinghy was described as a taxi-boat, which travels along stretches of the northern French and Belgian coasts, picking up refugees and migrants along the shore.

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Who can claim victory if Iran ceasefire holds? An early winner is China

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Beijing’s powerbrokers are credited with winning Iran over, although one analyst says they were ‘pushing an open door’

As the world struggles to make sense of what, if anything, was achieved by the ceasefire deal announced by the US and Iran on Tuesday, one major power that stands to win regardless is China.

Beijing’s powerbrokers are being credited with pushing Iran towards agreeing to the ceasefire, bolstering its status as a regional mediator. In China’s tightly censored domestic media, articles basking in the glory of China being the grown-up in the room at a time of international crisis were allowed to circulate.

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Strait of Hormuz not open, Abu Dhabi’s oil chief says as crude prices rise

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Uncertainty over US-Iran ceasefire pushes price of Brent crude towards $100 a barrel

The boss of Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil company has said the strait of Hormuz is “not open” despite the US-Iran ceasefire agreed earlier this week, as uncertainty over the truce pushed the price of Brent crude towards $100 a barrel on Thursday.

Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), said passage through the crucial waterway was subject to “permission, conditions and political leverage” by Iran. He said energy security and global economic stability depended on the strait being opened “fully, unconditionally and without restriction”.

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I.U.C.N. Red List Moves Emperor Penguins to “Endangered” – The New York Times

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  1. I.U.C.N. Red List Moves Emperor Penguins to “Endangered”  The New York Times
  2. Mass drowning of chicks puts emperor penguins at risk of extinction  The Guardian
  3. Emperor Penguins Declared Endangered as Antarctica Loses Ice  Bloomberg.com
  4. Emperor penguins have just been declared endangered  The Washington Post
  5. These two iconic polar species have been driven to endangered status by a warming planet  CNN
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‘I’m broken-hearted’: father pays tribute to student, 21, stabbed in Primrose Hill

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Finbar Sullivan, who ‘loved movies and making films’, had gone to London park to use new camera, says father

A film student who was stabbed to death in London’s Primrose Hill was a “beautiful, lovely, outgoing, loving” man, his father has said.

Finbar Sullivan, 21, was stabbed in a fight in the north London park in the early evening on Tuesday and was pronounced dead at the scene.

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Woman who allegedly attacked Sydney hospital patient with hammer claims he stole her brother’s ashes, court hears

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Woman, 46, charged with grievous bodily harm after she allegedly struck 63-year-old RPA patient in head, NSW police say

A man is fighting for his life after being allegedly attacked with a hammer at a Sydney hospital by a woman he knew who claimed he had stolen her brother’s ashes, a court has heard.

Viki Graham, 46, was refused bail and will spend at least two months in jail after she was charged with wounding the 63-year-old man while he lay in a bed at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred hospital.

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Campaigners demand action to break UK’s ‘addiction’ to controversial herbicide

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Use of glyphosate has risen 10-fold in 30 years, raising fears for public health

It was Scottish farmers in the 1980s who pioneered the practice of spraying glyphosate on their wheat just before harvest. Struggling in the damp glens to get their crop to dry evenly, they came up with the idea of accelerating the process by killing it a week or two before harvesting.

Glyphosate, then a revolutionary herbicide that killed everything plant-based but spared animal life, seemed perfect for the job. Soon the practice spread to wetter, colder agricultural regions around the world.

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UK man jailed for sexually abusing nine-year-old step granddaughter has Australian visa reinstated by tribunal

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The man successfully appealed the automatic revocation of his permanent resident visa after being sentenced to 14 months in prison

An elderly UK man who served a prison sentence for sexually abusing his step granddaughter when she was nine years old has had his Australian visa reinstated by a tribunal because of his “strong ties to Australia”.

The man was sentenced to 14 months prison in the Western Australia district court in February 2024 for molesting the girl in the presence of another child.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Iran’s Asymmetric Counterair Campaign: Attacking the U.S. Air Force’s Nests and Eggs – War on the Rocks

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  1. Iran’s Asymmetric Counterair Campaign: Attacking the U.S. Air Force’s Nests and Eggs  War on the Rocks
  2. Opinion | Iran’s $30,000 drones are deterring our $2.7 billion warships  The Boston Globe
  3. How long-distance drones from a cornered Iran could threaten NYC  New York Post
  4. JUST IN: Middle East Conflict Shows Defense Harder Than Offense in Modern Warfare  National Defense Magazine
  5. US bases in Kuwait and Iraq under threat from Iranian strikes  Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law
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Lebanon must be included in US-Iran ceasefire deal, Yvette Cooper to say

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Foreign secretary to address City leaders in London as Israel intensifies bombing and Vance says Lebanon is not part of deal

Lebanon must be included in the ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran, the British foreign secretary is to say, as a two-week pause in the conflict hangs in the balance.

Addressing an event at the Mansion House in London, Yvette Cooper is expected to say there “must be no return to conflict” after the ceasefire announced by the US president, Donald Trump, late on Tuesday.

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Bruce Lehrmann loses last-ditch legal effort to appeal defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson

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The high court has dismissed his bid to clear his name of findings that, on the balance of probabilities, he raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019

Bruce Lehrmann has lost his last legal avenue to challenge his failed defamation case against Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson after Australia’s top court dismissed his case.

The high court dismissed his attempt to challenge the outcome in a short judgment published to its website on Thursday.

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