- Dalai Lama Confirms Institution Will Continue With Successor Bloomberg
- BBC visits heart of Tibetan resistance as showdown looms between Dalai Lama and China BBC
- Tibetans in exile wonder: Will the next Dalai Lama be as charismatic as this one? AP News
- The Dalai Lama announces plans for a successor, signaling China won't have a say NPR
- Dalai Lama Tightens Grip on Reins of Succession in the Face of Chinese Pressure The New York Times
Minister declines to rule out tax rises after welfare concessions – UK politics live
Pat McFadden says there will be ‘financial consequences’ to Keir Starmer’s climbdown amid renewed speculation over Labour’s budget plans
Helen Miller, the new head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, said the lack of savings from the personal independence payments (Pip) changes made tax rises “increasingly likely” at the budget and that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, now had “very little wriggle room”.
The welfare bill as it stood would now not create any savings, she told Today:
By the end of this parliament the government will save nothing.
After govt’s 11th hour 59th minute climbdown over Pip it’s time for Reeves to go back to the drawing board and look for fairer and more sensible ways to raise money – like a wealth tax on multimillionaires and billionaires to raise up to £24bn a year.
Continue reading...Heathrow substation fire ‘caused by fault first identified seven years ago’
Ofgem opens investigation into National Grid as report finds incident that cut airport power was preventable
The root cause of the substation fire that shut Heathrow airport was a preventable technical fault that National Grid had been aware of seven years ago but failed to fix properly, investigators have concluded.
The final report by the National Energy System Operator (Neso) on the incident said the fire that cut power to the airport on 21 March, affecting more than 1,350 flights, almost 300,000 passengers and cutting power to 67,000 homes, was “most likely” sparked by moisture entering the insulation around wires.
Continue reading...Diddy jury to keep deliberating after reaching deadlock on most serious charge
The panel has reached a verdict on four of the five counts in the rap mogul's sex trafficking trial.
Ugandan military helicopter crashes at Somalia airport, official says
Eight people were on board the helicopter, an aviation official says.
Kanye West barred from entering Australia over Hitler song, Tony Burke says
Home affairs minister says decision to revoke rapper’s visa came after widely condemned track released in May
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The US rapper and artist Kanye West has been barred from travelling to Australia after the release of his widely condemned song Heil Hitler, which has been banned on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, disclosed on Wednesday that the government had revoked the rapper’s visa after his song referencing the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was released independently in May.
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Continue reading...Welfare bill climbdown will have ‘a cost’ at budget, says senior minister
Pat McFadden says U-turn will change calculations, as IFS says tax rises in autumn look increasingly likely
There will be “a cost” to the government’s climbdown on welfare changes at the budget, one of Keir Starmer’s senior ministers has said, as a leading fiscal thinktank said new tax rises appeared increasingly likely.
Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, defended Starmer and the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, after the second reading of the government’s main welfare bill passed its first Commons test only after a central element was removed.
Continue reading...Russia’s economy just flashed warning signs about manufacturing and employment – Business Insider
- Russia's economy just flashed warning signs about manufacturing and employment Business Insider
- Russia's War Economy Is Heading To Recession. It Probably Won't Slow Down The War. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
- Russian Manufacturing Activity Sees Sharpest Decline Since Early Months of Ukraine Invasion The Moscow Times
- Russia's Officials Keep Contradicting Putin on War Economy Newsweek
- Russian services sector contracts for first time in a year in June Reuters
Man in critical condition with lyssavirus after bat bite – as it happened
This blog is now closed
Khaled Sabsabi reinstated as Venice Biennale representative after independent review into dumping
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NSW wild weather: ‘Conditions can become dangerous quickly’
Wild weather has brought down trees, damaged properties and flooded roads on the NSW coast, NSW SES says.
These incidents are a timely reminder that roads are slippery, and conditions can become dangerous quickly.
Please, never drive, walk or play in flood waters. If you do come across a flooded road, turn around and find an alternative route.
Continue reading...An oil-drilling ship capsized in the Gulf of Suez, killing at least 4 crewmen, Egypt says – AP News
- An oil-drilling ship capsized in the Gulf of Suez, killing at least 4 crewmen, Egypt says AP News
- Four dead, four missing after oil barge sinks in Gulf of Suez: Egypt gov’t Al Jazeera
- Four dead, three missing as Saudi-owned drilling barge capsizes Upstream Online
- Vessel off coach of Egypt, in Gulf of Suez, capsizes in deadly accident The Jerusalem Post
- Suez Canal traffic unaffected by drill ship Incident Egyptian Gazette
Paramount settles with Trump for $16m over ‘60 Minutes’ Kamala Harris interview
Paramount said it would pay the $16m to Trump’s future presidential library and not to Trump himself. It also said the settlement did not include a statement of apology or regret.
CBS parent company Paramount on Wednesday settled a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over an interview broadcast in October, in the latest concession by a media company to the US president, who has targeted outlets over what he describes as false or misleading coverage.
Paramount said it would pay $16m to settle the suit with the money allocated to Trump’s future presidential library, and not paid to Trump “directly or indirectly”.
Continue reading...Judge orders Queensland council to pause planned demolition of homeless camps
Moreton Bay council agrees to supreme court injunction against evicting residents who had previously been evicted from another park
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Moreton Bay city council has been ordered not to clear a homeless encampment after a hearing in the Queensland supreme court on Wednesday.
Numerous homeless residents of Eddie Hyland Park in Lawnton were evicted by council rangers in April, with their tents cleared by heavy machinery. Just two were granted public housing. Most have set up a new camp in a different park in Kallangur.
Continue reading...Trump says Israel has agreed to conditions for 60-day Gaza ceasefire
A Hamas official tells the BBC the group is "ready" for a deal if it ends the war, but optimism remains low.
EU may as well be ‘province of China’ due to reliance on imports, says industrialist
Stefan Scherer, boss of AMG Lithium, says Europe must become more self-sufficient in critical raw materials and new technologies
The EU may as well “apply to be a province of China” such is its inability to wean itself off that country’s supply of critical raw materials used in everything from electric vehicles to smartphones and wind turbines, a leading German industrialist has said.
As chief executive of AMG Lithium, the EU’s first factory to make the lithium hydroxide used in many car batteries, Stefan Scherer sits at the centre of what has been dubbed a new gold rush.
Continue reading...‘Tiny melodies’: musician uses moths’ flight data to compose piece about their decline
Ellie Wilson’s piece titled Moth x Human assigns different sounds to the species on Parsonage Down in Salisbury
They are vital pollinators who come out at night, but now moths have emerged into the bright light of day as co-creators of a new piece of music – composed using the insects’ own flight data.
Ellie Wilson composed Moth x Human in a protected habitat on Parsonage Down in Salisbury, Wiltshire. She assigned each of the 80 resident moth species a different sound, which was triggered when it landed on her monitor.
Continue reading...Humiliation for Starmer as he loses control of Commons – BBC
- Humiliation for Starmer as he loses control of Commons BBC
- Keir Starmer Endures Rebellion in Parliament Over Welfare Cuts The New York Times
- PMQs latest: Starmer fails to rule out tax rises and refuses to guarantee Reeves will stay on as chancellor The Independent
- A humiliating day for Keir Starmer in parliament - podcast The Guardian
- Starmer guts UK welfare reforms to avoid Commons defeat Financial Times
‘A billion people backing you’: China transfixed as Musk turns against Trump
Tesla CEO’s feud with US president dominates Chinese social media, with many praising his ‘tech-driven mindset’
Few break-ups have as many gossiping observers as the fallout between the once inseparable Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
The ill-fated bromance between the US president and the world’s richest man, which once raised questions about American oligarchy, is now being pored over by social media users in China, many of whom are Team Musk.
Continue reading...What’s next after Thai PM Paetongtarn’s suspension and who’s taking over? – Reuters
- What’s next after Thai PM Paetongtarn’s suspension and who’s taking over? Reuters
- Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra Suspended Amid Cambodia Dispute The New York Times
- Thailand’s Most Divisive Family May Have No More Moves Left Bloomberg
- Thailand: PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra suspended over leaked phone call BBC
- Dynasty in distress: Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn's fate in limbo Reuters
Wednesday briefing: Has Starmer’s welfare reform bill victory left a fractured Labour party in its wake?
In today’s newsletter: After frantic late negotiations, the government’s welfare overhaul has passed – now saving almost none of the money that the government said was crucial to its success
Good morning. To his loveless landslide, Keir Starmer can now add a vapid victory. Last night, the government’s flagship welfare reform bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons by 335 votes to 260 – a majority of 75. But after last-minute concessions from the government to secure the bill’s passage, a set of measures whose intended savings had already fallen from £5bn to £2.5bn a year, now looks like recouping much closer to nothing.
The central climbdown, where plans for deep cuts to the personal independence payment (Pip) in the future were shelved, has been celebrated by disabled people and the charities who represent them. They had feared that the support they rely on was about to be ripped away. But it is also a measure of how disastrous the whole process has been for Starmer.
Israel-Gaza war | Donald Trump says that Israel has accepted conditions of a ceasefire after US-Israeli talks and urged Hamas to agree. The US president did not give details of the terms and there is no indication that Hamas will accept them.
NHS | Three bosses at the hospital where Lucy Letby worked have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, police have said. The three, who have not been named, were arrested as part of the investigation into the actions of leaders at the Countess of Chester hospital.
UK news | The home secretary is coming under increasing pressure to abandon plans to ban Palestine Action, as UN experts and hundreds of lawyers warned that proscribing the group would conflate protest and terrorism.
US news | The jury in the high-profile federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs concluded the day without a verdict on Tuesday, unable to come to a decision on one of the five counts. The judge advised the jury to “keep deliberating”.
Extreme heat | Outdoor working has been banned during the hottest parts of the day in more than half of Italy’s regions, as an extreme heatwave that has smashed June temperature records in Spain and Portugal continues to grip large swathes of Europe.
Continue reading...Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ passes Senate: What’s in it, who voted how?
The measure was approved after almost 48 hours of reading, debate and voting on various amendments.