‘Indefensible’: alleged child abuse survivor takes on Albanese government over $2.5bn Nauru deal

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Lawyers of Hazara man who was allegedly sexually abused by carer launch bid to prevent imminent deportation to Pacific island

The Albanese government’s $2.5bn deal with Nauru, under which hundreds of non-citizens will be sent to the tiny Pacific island, will face another legal challenge prompted by an alleged child abuse survivor.

Legal representatives for Abdul*, a Hazara man who was re-detained in immigration detention earlier this month, have launched a bid to prevent the 29-year-old’s imminent deportation to Nauru by challenging its compatibility with Australia’s constitution.

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ChatGPT and other AI bots made huge errors before Scottish election, study finds

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Exclusive: Electoral Commission calls for new controls, as Demos finds tools made up fake scandals, invented candidates or gave wrong date

The Electoral Commission has called for new legal controls over misinformation from AI chatbots, after a thinktank found they had made serious mistakes during the recent Scottish election.

The thinktank Demos said its investigation had found that AI services gave voters misinformation to 34% of the questions it posed, which it said raised worrying questions about the lack of regulation of AI platforms in the UK.

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EU ties billions in Ukraine aid to unpopular tax reforms – The Kyiv Independent

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  1. EU ties billions in Ukraine aid to unpopular tax reforms  The Kyiv Independent
  2. EU signs MoU with Ukraine, paving way for disbursement in mid-June  Reuters
  3. EU Ties Part of Ukraine €90 Billion Aid to Unpopular Tax Measure  Bloomberg.com
  4. Ukraine primed for €9B payout from EU loan next month  politico.eu
  5. FIREPOWER: Should the EU Ukraine loan finance PURL packages?  Euractiv
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January 6 police officers sue Trump over $1.8bn fund, alleging ‘presidential corruption’

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Retired Capitol police officer and DC officer allege Trump’s $1.8bn fund unlawfully rewards January 6 rioters and allies

Two police officers who clashed with rioters at the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection in 2021 have sued Donald Trump over plans to create a $1.776bn “anti-weaponization” fund.

The fund, which critics have argued is essentially a slush fund, is set to compensate allies of the US president who he claims were victims of prosecutorial overreach.

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DWP pursued woman’s employer for nonexistent ‘benefit debt’

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Exclusive: Employer of woman who cares for disabled mother was asked to deduct ‘debt’ from salary despite court ruling she had nothing to pay

A woman providing full-time unpaid care for her elderly disabled mother says her job was put in jeopardy after welfare officials wrongly pursued her employer for a nonexistent “benefit debt” quashed by the courts nearly four years ago.

The 44-year-old woman said she was staggered when the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) wrote to her employer out of the blue this month demanding they deduct the long-forgotten universal credit overpayment “debt” from her salary.

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US and Israel ‘hoped to install Ahmadinejad as Iran’s leader’

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Airstrike at the start of the war was aimed at freeing populist ex-president from house arrest, US newspaper claims

Fresh questions have been raised over the US and Israeli effort to depose the Iranian regime after it was claimed that Israel wanted to put the populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power.

Ahmadinejad’s turbulent presidency, from 2005 to 2013, was marked by incendiary attacks on Israel but he recast himself as a critic of the regime and champion of the poor after falling out with the supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

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Ukraine war entering decisive phase, as Russia finds losses hard to bear (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,546) – EUobserver

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  1. Ukraine war entering decisive phase, as Russia finds losses hard to bear (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,546)  EUobserver
  2. Russia’s War Is Going Badly—on the Ground and in the Air  WSJ
  3. Russia is starting to lose ground in Ukraine  The Economist
  4. Shifting momentum in the Russia-Ukraine war  NPR
  5. The tide is turning in Russia-Ukraine war  GZERO Media
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Labour must be bolder or it will lose, Streeting says in resignation speech

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In first speech since quitting cabinet, Streeting says party must deliver change or it will hand keys of No 10 to Reform

Labour must be bolder and deliver real change, Wes Streeting has said in his first Commons speech since resigning as health secretary, saying that he quit the government because it was “currently losing” the fight against populist nationalism.

Streeting reiterated his view that leaving the EU had been a damaging mistake for the UK, and argued that young people had been let down by a system stacked against them.

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Rutte shrugs off shrinking US military presence in Europe as ‘expected’ – politico.eu

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  1. Rutte shrugs off shrinking US military presence in Europe as ‘expected’  politico.eu
  2. Exclusive: US plans to shrink forces available to NATO during crises, sources say  Reuters
  3. More US troop withdrawals from Europe expected, NATO commander says  Military Times
  4. Top NATO Official Says 5,000 US Troops to Leave Europe  Bloomberg.com
  5. US troop withdrawal from Europe to take 'years' — general  dw.com
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Brexit may be back, but Britain needs to know what it wants

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A decade after the referendum, EU leaders would welcome closer ties – once the UK has understood the ‘European deal’

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Brexit’s back. Well, sort of. If it ever really went away. At any rate, an awful lot of ink has been spilled – in Britain, at least – over last weekend’s remarks by a would-be PM that Brexit was “a catastrophic mistake” and the UK’s future lay “back in the EU”.

That reflects, first, just how deep the wounds of Brexit still run. A decade after the referendum unleashed an identity politics so powerful it still dominates UK debate, Britain’s voters remain divided into the two warring tribes of remain versus leave.

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‘He sacrificed his life’: security guard killed in San Diego mosque attack hailed as hero

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Amin Abdullah, 51, was one of the three victims of deadly shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday

A security guard who was killed during the shooting at a San Diego mosque on Monday is being hailed as a hero after police said that his actions “undoubtedly” saved lives.

On Monday, two teenagers opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego, California, shooting and killing three men. The two attackers, aged 17 and 18, were found dead several blocks away, from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds, officials said.

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EU shortlists tungsten, rare earths for first stockpile to curb reliance on China – Reuters

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  1. EU shortlists tungsten, rare earths for first stockpile to curb reliance on China  Reuters
  2. Fears of new China shock as EU industry’s reliance on imports grows  The Guardian
  3. EU plans to force companies to buy parts from non-Chinese suppliers  Financial Times
  4. The EU and China are stumbling into a trade war  The Economist
  5. EU Plans Tougher Trade Measures to Rebuff Chinese Export Surge  Bloomberg.com
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Hungarian PM Magyar looks to revive — and expand — Visegrad group – politico.eu

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  1. Hungarian PM Magyar looks to revive — and expand — Visegrad group  politico.eu
  2. Visegrád group eyes revival with post-Orbán Hungary  Euronews.com
  3. Hungary's new Prime Minister Magyar seeks to fix Poland ties  dw.com
  4. Hungary’s Magyar kicks off his first foreign trip as prime minister to ally Poland  AP News
  5. Magyar Flies Commercial in Break With Jet-Setting Orban Cabinet  Bloomberg.com
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Cocaine worth $9.4M found in shipment of Kim Kardashian SKIMS brand garments – Chicago Tribune

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  1. Cocaine worth $9.4M found in shipment of Kim Kardashian SKIMS brand garments  Chicago Tribune
  2. $8.4M worth of cocaine found on truck carrying Kim Kardashian's Skims  USA Today
  3. Driver jailed for hiding 90 kg of cocaine in vehicle carrying Skims shipment - National  Global News
  4. UK police find cocaine worth $9.3 million stashed in a shipment of Kim Kardashian brand underwear  ABC7 Los Angeles
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Exclusive: Oil refining at a standstill in central Russia after Ukrainian drone strikes, sources say – Reuters

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  1. Exclusive: Oil refining at a standstill in central Russia after Ukrainian drone strikes, sources say  Reuters
  2. As Ukraine Strikes Russian Oil Sites, an Environmental Disaster Unfolds  The New York Times
  3. Drone Strikes Force Central Russian Refineries to Halt or Cut Output – Reuters  The Moscow Times
  4. Zelenskyy claims a 'significant' number of Russian regions are in a state of bankruptcy  Yahoo
  5. Risk of gasoline shortage in Russia due to refinery problems – intelligence  Ukrinform - Ukrainian National News Agency
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Russia Preparing 100,000 Troops, 5 Scenarios to Expand War Through Northern Ukraine – Zelensky – Kyiv Post

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  1. Russia Preparing 100,000 Troops, 5 Scenarios to Expand War Through Northern Ukraine – Zelensky  Kyiv Post
  2. Ukraine to beef up northern defences over Russian offensive plans  Reuters
  3. Ukraine Prepares for Possible Russian War Expansion Through Belarus, Zelenskyy Says  UNITED24 Media
  4. Zelensky names directions Russia considers for additional attacks  Ukrinform - Ukrainian National News Agency
  5. Syrskyi: Russian General Staff plans new offensive from northern direction  belsat.eu
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Lithuanian leaders rushed to bunkers as drone violates country’s airspace

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Vilnius residents urged to take shelter during alert, after Nato and EU warn that Russia is diverting Ukraine’s drones

Lithuania’s president and prime minister were rushed to underground bunkers and residents of the capital, Vilnius, urged to take shelter during a warning issued after a drone violated the country’s airspace.

Air and train traffic in and around the city was suspended after the mobile phone “take shelter” alert, the first issued in an EU and Nato country since the start of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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Timmy the Whale Got Stranded Off the German Coast. Then Things Got Weird. – The New York Times

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  1. Timmy the Whale Got Stranded Off the German Coast. Then Things Got Weird.  The New York Times
  2. Whale to be removed from Danish island after failed German rescue  BBC
  3. Timmy, the stranded humpback whale, found dead off Danish coast  CNN
  4. Timmy the stranded whale is dead. Please, let’s put animal welfare first and human emotion second  The Conversation
  5. Timmy the whale confirmed dead by Danish environment agency  Oceanographic Magazine
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Hormuz closure could trigger ‘agrifood shock’, price crisis within a year, FAO warns – Reuters

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  1. Hormuz closure could trigger 'agrifood shock', price crisis within a year, FAO warns  Reuters
  2. World has 6 months to avert major food crisis, says UN as Hormuz struggle drags on  politico.eu
  3. Farmers 'bereft of confidence' as Iran war pushes up costs  BBC
  4. Strait of Hormuz conflict threatens global food prices as FAO warns time is running out  Food and Agriculture Organization
  5. U.K. Lawmaker Warns of 'Global Food Crisis,' Urges Immediate Reopening for Strait of Hormuz  Time Magazine
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