Extreme weather and powerful winds predicted for 100m Americans

Sprawling storm system to affect vast swath of territory from Canada to Texas with tornadoes threatening in south

The National Weather Service has predicted extreme weather across a vast swath of the US encompassing more than 100 million people, with powerful winds gusts up to 80mph (130km/h) being forecast from the border with Canada to Texas.

A sprawling storm system crossing the US on Friday overturned semitrucks on highways and fanned wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma, where officials called for evacuations in at least one town. Tornado threats loomed for the Mississippi valley into the night and the deep south on Saturday.

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Trump’s environmental rule-shredding will put lives at risk, ex-EPA heads say

Former agency leaders, including two Republicans, say rollbacks by Lee Zeldin could cause ‘severe harms’

Three former Environmental Protection Agency leaders sounded an alarm on Friday, saying rollbacks proposed by the EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, endanger the lives of millions of Americans and abandon the agency’s dual mission to protect the environment and human health.

Zeldin said on Wednesday he planned to roll back 31 key environmental rules on everything from clean air to clean water and climate change. The former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy called Zeldin’s announcement “the most disastrous day in EPA history”.

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Pioneer fintech firm Klarna sees revenue boost as it eyes US stock market listing

Swedish company’s valuation jumped 24% in 2024 as ‘buy now, pay later’ market is projected to top $160bn by 2032

The Swedish fintech firm Klarna disclosed on Friday that its revenue jumped 24% in 2024 as the “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) pioneer made public its filing for a much-anticipated US stock market listing.

The company, which reshaped online shopping through its short-term financing model, drew investor attention as its valuation soared from $5.5bn to $46.5bn in just two years, fueled by three funding rounds between mid-2020 and 2021.

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Oz vows to make Americans healthier but dodges questions on Trump cuts

TV doctor and former heart surgeon vows to fight healthcare fraud at Senate hearing for health role

Dr Mehmet Oz promised senators on Friday to fight healthcare fraud and push to make Americans healthier if he becomes the next leader of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

But the former heart surgeon and TV personality dodged several opportunities to say broadly whether he would oppose cuts to Medicaid, the government-funded program for people with low incomes.

Oz, Donald Trump’s pick to be the next CMS administrator, also said technology such as artificial intelligence and telemedicine can be used to make care more efficient and expand its reach.

“We have a generational opportunity to fix our healthcare system and help people stay healthy for longer,” he said in his opening remarks.

He faced over two and a half hours of questioning before the Republican-controlled Senate finance committee, which will vote later on whether to forward his nomination to the full Senate for consideration.

Leading the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services presents a “monumental opportunity” to make the country healthier, Oz told senators on Friday morning.

“We don’t have to order people to eat healthy, we have to make it easier for people to be healthy,” adding that he considered maintaining good health a “patriotic duty”.

Republicans, who have coalesced around Trump’s nominees for the health agencies, asked Oz about his plans for eliminating fraud from the $1tn programs.

Democrats, meanwhile, tried to pin him down on potential cuts to the state and federally funded Medicaid program that Republicans are considering.

The 64-year-old was a respected heart surgeon who turned into a popular TV pitchman. Now he has his sights on overseeing health insurance for about 150 million Americans enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid or Affordable Care Act coverage.

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North Sea collision: Russian container ship captain charged with manslaughter

Vladimir Motin was in charge of the Solong when it hit a tanker off East Yorkshire coast, leaving one man dead

The master of the container ship the Solong, which crashed into another vessel in the North Sea, has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter.

Vladimir Motin, 59, a Russian national, was in charge of the ship when it collided with a tanker carrying jet fuel on Monday about 12 miles (19km) off the East Yorkshire coast, leaving one man dead.

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Greek PM seeks ‘reset’ with former far-right activist as migration minister

Shaken by rail protests, Kyriakos Mitsotakis brings in new transport minister while tacking right on migration

The Greek prime minister has appointed a former far-right student activist to the helm of the migration ministry as part of a broad reshuffle aimed at “resetting” his government amid public outrage over its handling of a deadly 2023 train crash.

In an attempt to stem declining approval ratings, Kyriakos Mitsotakis placed the self-described nationalist, Makis Voridis, in the sensitive post while selecting a number of younger officials to key portfolios including the transport ministry.

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Blockers, checkers, bats and chainsaws: don’t talk like Musk, Starmer is warned

PM has been urged to ‘get a grip’ on messaging after railing against the ‘flabby’ state and the civil service’s ‘tepid bath’

Keir Starmer has been warned against adopting the language of Elon Musk after railing against “blockers and checkers” and the “flabby” civil service this week.

Gus O’Donnell, the former cabinet secretary, was one of those urging the prime minister to “get a grip” on his messaging, telling the Institute for Government podcast: “My God, he has mishandled the communications on this terribly.”

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Canada ‘will never be part of the US’, says new PM Mark Carney amid trade war

Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor sworn in and expected to call election soon

Mark Carney has said Canada will never be part of the US, after being sworn in as the country’s 24th prime minister in a sudden rise to power.

“We will never, in any shape or form, be part of the US,” the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England told a crowd outside Rideau Hall in Ottawa, rejecting Donald Trump’s annexation threats. “We are very fundamentally a different country.”

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Apple’s UK encryption legal challenge heard behind closed doors

Media organisations including the Guardian and the BBC fail to gain entry to proceedings

A hearing in Apple’s legal battle with the UK government over access to customer data was held behind closed doors on Friday after the press failed to gain entry to proceedings.

The US tech firm has launched an appeal with the investigatory powers tribunal after the Home Office demanded access to encrypted data stored remotely in Apple’s cloud servers.

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Pakistan accuses India of sponsoring militant terror group after train hijacking

A spokesperson offered no evidence for the claim after 26 people were killed on a train that was hijacked in Balochistan province on Tuesday

Pakistan’s military has accused neighbouring India of sponsoring militant groups in the south-west of the country as survivors recounted their ordeal from an unprecedented attack that killed 26 passengers on a hijacked train.

The scope of the attack in Balochistan province underscores the struggles that Pakistan faces to rein in militant groups.

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US rebuts Hamas’s ‘entirely impractical’ ceasefire demands

Apparent rejection of new offer to free US-Israeli hostage dashes hopes of progress but will please Tel Aviv

The Trump administration has accused Hamas of making “entirely impractical” demands and stalling on a deal to release a US-Israeli hostage in exchange for an extension of the Gaza ceasefire.

“Hamas is making a very bad bet that time is on its side. It is not,” the office of Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and the US national security council said in a statement. “Hamas is well aware of the deadline, and should know that we will respond accordingly if that deadline passes,” it said, adding that Trump had already vowed Hamas would “pay a severe price” for not freeing hostages.

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30,000 jobs could go in Labour’s radical overhaul of NHS

Loss of staff will be at least twice as big as thought, as new NHS England chief tells regional boards to cut costs by 50%

The jobs cull from the government’s radical restructuring of the NHS will be at least twice as big as previously thought, with other parts of the health service now being downsized too.

The staff shakeout caused by NHS England’s abolition and unprecedented cost-cutting elsewhere will mean the number of lost posts will soar from the 10,000 expected to between 20,000 and 30,000.

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Actor said to have been groped by Noel Clarke tells court it did not happen

Louise Dylan speaks at Clarke’s libel case against Guardian about wrap party for 2012 film The Knot

An actor who was said to have been groped by Noel Clarke has told the high court that the incident never happened.

In a witness statement for Guardian News and Media (GNM), which is being sued for libel by Clarke, his former creative partner Davie Fairbanks said he saw the former Doctor Who star inappropriately touch Louise Dylan at the wrap party for the 2012 film, The Knot.

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Ukraine’s retreat from Kursk appears to mark end of audacious operation

Some say incursion achieved many goals while others wonder if it cost Ukrainian lives for no tangible gain

Under constant attack from drones attached to fibre optic cables, the soldiers scrambled in groups of two or three along hidden tracks or through fields, often walking miles to reach Ukrainian territory.

The Ukrainian retreat from the Kursk region, carried out in stages over the past two weeks, appears to mark the end of one of the most audacious and surprising operations of the conflict, and strips Ukraine of one of its few solid bargaining chips in possible peace negotiations with Russia.

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Lawyer says Philippines’ Duterte was ‘abducted’, too ill to testify at ICC – Reuters

  1. Lawyer says Philippines' Duterte was 'abducted', too ill to testify at ICC  Reuters
  2. Former Philippines leader Duterte appears in Hague courtroom via video link on ‘war on drugs’ charges  CNN
  3. Access Asia - Philippine ex-President Duterte faces charges for war on drugs  FRANCE 24 English
  4. Philippines Duterte's first night in ICC custody is a pivotal moment for the court  BBC.com
  5. The senator, the priest, the forensic pathologist: the people who brought ex-president Duterte to justice  The Guardian
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‘Germany is back’: Merz secures Greens’ support for defence spend boost

Backing of Greens is tantamount to approval of chancellor-in-waiting’s proposal to relax debt brake

Germany’s conservative chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, has said he has secured the support of the Green party for his radical plan to increase spending on defence and infrastructure after marathon talks that went through the night, paving the way for its approval in parliament.

“Germany is back,” Merz said in Berlin on Friday. “Germany is making its large contribution to the defence of freedom and peace in Europe.”

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AP Exclusive: US and Israel look to Africa for moving Palestinians uprooted from Gaza – The Associated Press

  1. AP Exclusive: US and Israel look to Africa for moving Palestinians uprooted from Gaza  The Associated Press
  2. Somalia rejects any plan to use its territory to resettle Palestinians, minister says  The Times of Israel
  3. Sudan rejects US request to discuss taking in Palestinians under Trump’s Gaza plan  The Guardian US
  4. US and Israel look to Africa for resettling Palestinians uprooted from Gaza - report  The Jerusalem Post
  5. Somalia and Somaliland say no talks on resettling Palestinians from Gaza  Reuters
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The new reality dawning in Australia: it can no longer rely on the US

For all the fraternal rhetoric, the alliance has always been asymmetric. It seems Washington under Trump sees it as immaterial

It’s not really about the tariffs.

Not for Australia the brutal humiliation meted out on camera to Ukraine in the Oval Office. Nor Canada’s escalating war of invective and retaliatory sanctions.

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Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte appears by video link in Hague accused of crimes against humanity – as it happened

Duterte faces charges over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups say killed tens of thousands. This live blog is closed

Philippine ex-president Rodrigo Duterte is appearing by video link before judges at the international criminal court.

Duterte would follow the proceedings through a video link, a court spokesperson said.

To some Duterte’s arrest this week came as a sudden shock. But for years many brave Filipinos, from priests, politicians, pathologists, to relatives of the victims and journalists, have worked tirelessly, in and out of the spotlight, to expose the horrors of the deadly campaign and collect enough evidence to hold Duterte to account.

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Russian mercenary sentenced to life by Finnish court for war crimes in Ukraine – BBC.com

  1. Russian mercenary sentenced to life by Finnish court for war crimes in Ukraine  BBC.com
  2. Finland Court Finds Russian Mercenary Guilty of War Crimes in Ukraine  The New York Times
  3. Court in Finland sentences Rusich group commander to life imprisonment for war crimes in Ukraine  Ukrainska Pravda
  4. Finland sentences Russian neo-Nazi mercenary Yan Petrovsky to life for war crimes in Ukraine  Kyiv Independent
  5. Russian jailed for life in Finland for Ukraine war crimes  Reuters
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