Goldman Sachs warns Brent crude could rise over $100 per barrel if Strait of Hormuz is disrupted – business live

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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

The eurozone economy has continued to flirt with stagnation this month, with little growth in its key sectors.

The latest survey of purchasing managers across the euro area, just released by S&P Global, shows that the eurozone services sector is stalling this month, while factory growth slowed.

“The eurozone economy is struggling to gain momentum. For six months now, growth has been minimal, with activity in the service sector stagnating and manufacturing output rising only moderately.

In Germany, there are signs of a cautious improvement in the situation, but France continues to drag its feet. The momentum evident in the official growth figure of 0.6 percent for the first quarter is unlikely to have carried over into the second quarter, especially since special factors such as Ireland’s unusual jump in growth inflated this figure.

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‘Handcuffed like we’re criminals’: Ohio teen soccer star recounts deportation

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Emerson Colindres reflects on ‘traumatizing’ ordeal after Ice sent him to Honduras despite having no criminal record

The Ohio high school graduate and soccer standout who was recently deported from the US to Honduras despite having no arrest record has described being “handcuffed like we’re some big criminals” for the entirety of his deportation flight.

“To me, it was kind of more traumatizing because I haven’t been to my birth country in years,” Emerson Colindres, 19, who was brought from Honduras to the US by his family at age eight, said to the Cincinnati news station WCPO in an interview over the weekend.

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Metropolitan police appeal for help to recover 280-year-old violin worth £150,000

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Police release CCTV images of suspect in hunt for instrument allegedly stolen from north London pub

Police are appealing for help to recover a missing 285-year-old violin after it was allegedly stolen from a London pub.

Detectives have been trying to find the instrument since 18 February, when the violin, valued at more than £150,000, went missing from the Marquess Tavern on Canonbury Street. The victim reported the theft to the Metropolitan police that evening.

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NSW upper house president seeks advice from Bret Walker over possible political staffer arrests

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High-profile barrister consulted over arrest warrants for five government staffers who did not attend inquiry into Dural ‘fake terrorism plot’

The president of the New South Wales upper house has sought advice from high-profile barrister Bret Walker SC over whether he can seek arrest warrants for government staffers who failed to give evidence to an inquiry examining the Sydney caravan “fake terrorism plot”, Guardian Australia understands.

Ben Franklin is expected to reveal on Tuesday whether he intends to seek arrest warrants from the NSW supreme court for five staffers who were summoned to appear before the inquiry on Friday, but did not attend. Three are from the office of the premier, Chris Minns, and two work for the police minister, Yasmin Catley.

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Wes Streeting announces investigation into NHS maternity services

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Health secretary announces ‘rapid’ national inquiry into failings in NHS care of mothers and babies in England

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has announced the launch of a national investigation into NHS maternity services.

The new rapid investigation is intended to provide truth to families suffering harm, as well as driving urgent improvements to care and safety.

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Trump’s war with Iran signals perilous shift from showman to strongman

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The emergence of Hawk Trump dismayed some of his Maga base but students of US adventurism were unsurprised

So the military parade that brought tanks to the streets of Washington on Donald Trump’s birthday was more than just an authoritarian ego trip. It was a show of strength and statement of intent.

Exactly a week later, sporting a “Make America great again” (Maga) cap in the situation room, the American president ordered the biggest US military intervention in decades as more than 125 aircraft and 75 weapons – including 14 bunker-busting bombs – struck three Iranian nuclear sites. Trump called it a “spectacular military success” – but it remains unclear how much damage had actually been inflicted.

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David Lammy refuses to say if UK supported US strikes on Iran nuclear facilities

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UK foreign secretary also sidesteps questions on legality of strikes and Donald Trump’s ‘regime change’ post

The UK foreign secretary has repeatedly refused to say if the UK supported the US military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities on Saturday or whether they were legal.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday for the first time since the US launched airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, David Lammy also sidestepped the question of whether he supported recent social media posts by Donald Trump that seemed to favour regime change in Tehran, saying that in all his discussions in the White House the sole focus had been on military targets.

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Plutonium levels at nuclear test site in WA up to 4,500 times higher than rest of coast, study finds

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Researchers say contamination found at Montebello Islands is part of fallout from 1950s British tests and will persist for thousands of years

Samples of marine sediment taken from the location of three 1950s British government nuclear bomb tests off the coast of Western Australia have revealed plutonium levels up to 4,500 times higher than the rest of the coastline.

Sixty six samples were taken from the shallow waters at the Montebello Islands, and scientists are now working to understand how marine life may be being affected by the sediment.

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Man charged with murder of charity worker in north London

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Clifton George, 44, arrested after Annabel Rook found with stab wounds in Stoke Newington on Tuesday

A man has been charged with the murder of a charity worker who was found stabbed in her home after a gas explosion.

Clifton George, 44, was arrested after Annabel Rook was found with stab wounds in Dumont Road, Stoke Newington, north London, shortly before 5am on Tuesday.

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Governments are leaving ‘heavy lifting’ on Closing the Gap to underresourced Aboriginal groups, review finds

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‘Inaction’ from governments and ‘baked in’ racism are hampering efforts to address entrenched disadvantage, according to first independent review

Australian governments are failing to do “the heavy lifting” needed to address entrenched disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, an independent review of the national Closing the Gap strategy has found.

The review by the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney is the first to independently assess the implementation of the Closing the Gap agreement since its establishment in 2008.

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US asks China to stop Iran from closing Strait of Hormuz – BBC

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  1. US asks China to stop Iran from closing Strait of Hormuz  BBC
  2. Any Iranian Closure of Hormuz Strait Would Be 'Extremely Dangerous', EU's Top Diplomat Says  U.S. News & World Report
  3. Two Supertankers U-Turn in Strait of Hormuz After US Strikes  Bloomberg.com
  4. Iran parliament reportedly backs closing Strait of Hormuz, which could spike oil prices  Axios
  5. Iran’s parliament backs blocking Strait of Hormuz. Its closure will alienate Tehran further  CNBC
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From shipping, to proxies, to targeting US bases, Iran’s options to strike back are limited

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Trump has warned of broader US involvement in Israel’s war if Iran attempts to strike back against US military sites in the region

Iran had sought to deter Donald Trump from joining Israel’s bombing campaign with dire threats of retaliation, but its options now are limited and fraught with risk.

Iranian officials have said specifically that US ships and military bases would be targeted, but much of the capacity it had relied on as a deterrent has been stripped away over the past few days by Israeli strikes. Those strikes however, have focused on long-range ballistic missile launchers. Iran still has a formidable arsenal of shorter-range missiles and drones.

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