Plan to fast-track appeals of some UK asylum seekers could face legal backlash

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Move to speed up appeals of people in government-funded hotels could be challenged on discrimination grounds, officials warn

A plan to fast-track the appeals of asylum seekers living in government-funded hotels could face multiple legal challenges on the grounds of discrimination, the government has said.

A 24-week legal deadline on appeal decisions for those staying in hotel rooms is being introduced in an attempt to fulfil a Labour manifesto promise to end a practice that costs the taxpayer billions of pounds a year.

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Simon Mann, mercenary behind failed ‘wonga coup’, dies aged 72

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Former SAS officer led a group of 70 who attempted to overthrow Equatorial Guinea’s president

Simon Mann, an Eton and Sandhurst-educated ex-SAS officer, who led a botched coup involving Margaret Thatcher’s son to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea, has died aged 72.

Mann led a group of 70 fellow mercenaries who were arrested in Zimbabwe in 2004 for attempting to topple Equatorial Guinea’s despotic president, Teodoro Obiang.

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Iranian man arrested in London as part of counter-terrorism investigation

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Two addresses in north-west London searched after three other Iranians detained in same investigation last Saturday

A 31-year-old Iranian man has been arrested in north-west London under the National Security Act 2023 as part of a counter-terrorism policing investigation in which three other Iranian men were detained, the Metropolitan police have said.

The man was detained on Friday morning and searches were carried out at two addresses in the area.

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Ukraine, Hungary each expel two diplomats in espionage row – Reuters

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  1. Ukraine, Hungary each expel two diplomats in espionage row  Reuters
  2. Ukraine says it has uncovered Hungarian spy network working in border region  CNN
  3. Ukraine says it has busted Hungarian spy ring collecting military data  The Guardian
  4. Ukraine accuses Hungary of spying on it; Budapest expels diplomats  The Washington Post
  5. Ukraine security service exposes suspected Hungarian military intelligence spy network  Euronews.com
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Hegseth cancels Israel trip to join Trump on Air Force One – Axios

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  1. Hegseth cancels Israel trip to join Trump on Air Force One  Axios
  2. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cancels scheduled visit to Israel, sources tells the 'Post'  The Jerusalem Post
  3. Hegseth said to cancel reported plan to visit Israel in coming days  The Times of Israel
  4. US defense secretary scraps visit to Israel: Reports  Al Arabiya English
  5. The @SecDef, Pete Hegseth, is joining President Trump's trip to the Middle East next week.  X
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Immigrants set for Libya deportation sat on tarmac for hours, attorney says

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Any Trump administration efforts to send non-Libyans to the north African country would violate a prior court order

Immigrants in Texas who were told they would be deported to Libya sat on a military airfield tarmac for hours on Wednesday, unsure of what would happen next, an attorney for one of the men has said.

The attorney, Tin Thanh Nguyen, told the news agency Reuters that his client, a Vietnamese construction worker from Los Angeles, was among the immigrants woken in the early morning hours and bussed from an immigration detention center in Pearsall, Texas, to an airfield where a military aircraft awaited them.

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Conservative party is fighting for its life, says former Tory cabinet minister

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Simon Clarke says ‘pipeline of future voters is dead’ as party figures warn Kemi Badenoch her job as leader is in danger

The Conservative party is fighting to justify its existence amid concerns that its pipeline of future voters is “completely dead”, a former cabinet minister and leading thinktank director has said.

Simon Clarke, an ally of Boris Johnson who backed Kemi Badenoch for the leadership last year, was among a string of former Tory ministers and serving MPs to tell the Guardian she faced removal by her party if she did not turn its fortunes around by next year’s local elections.

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Clergy molestation survivors concerned and insulted by election of Pope Leo XIV

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Pope faced questions about his handling of clerical sexual abuse cases earlier in his career after a survivors group filed a complaint

Groups supporting clergy-molestation survivors say they are gravely concerned and insulted by the election of Pope Leo XIV after he overcame questions about his handling of clerical sexual abuse cases earlier in his career to become the Roman Catholic church’s first-ever US-born leader.

Before Robert Prevost’s ascent to the papacy at age 69, he was leading a chapter of the Augustinian religious order in his home town of Chicago when allegations surfaced that a priest and Catholic high school principal under his jurisdiction had molested at least one student as well as kept child-abuse imagery.

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Mexico sues Google over changing Gulf of Mexico’s name for US users

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President Claudia Sheinbaum says lawsuit has been filed after US lawmakers voted on name change

Mexico has sued Google for changing the Gulf of Mexico’s name to “Gulf of America” for Google Maps users in the United States, Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said on Friday.

“The lawsuit has already been filed,” Sheinbaum said at her morning news conference, without saying where and when it was submitted.

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