US repatriates two dozen westerners from Islamic State camp in Syria

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Group includes 11 US citizens, including five minors, but tens of thousands of people remained detained five years after defeat of IS

The United States has repatriated two dozen western citizens, half of them Americans, from Islamic State prison camps in north-eastern Syria where tens of thousands have languished.

The operation is the largest ever of US citizens and comes as rights groups warn of dire conditions in the camps still in use some five years after the ultra-violent extremist movement lost its last territory in Syria.

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Florida ex-cop with ‘patterns of abuse and bias’ joins DeSantis’s state guard

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Javier Ortiz, accused of false arrests, harassment and doxxing, is now member of group reportedly becoming combat-ready militia

A former Florida police captain with a long history of civilian complaints, including false arrests and harassment, has joined the state’s state guard under governor Ron DeSantis.

Javier Ortiz, 44, joined the Florida state guard in February, the Miami Herald first reported. Ortiz’s enrollment comes months after being reinstated by the Miami police department, after he was initially dismissed for slew of conduct complaints.

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‘No longer remotely defensible’: Garrick’s decision to admit women shows times have changed

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Issue was not existence of men-only clubs but uniqueness of Garrick’s powerful membership list casting unflattering spotlight on British establishment

Who cares that an elite organisation full of mostly elderly white men has decided to allow women to join them in a small central London private members’ club?

Such was the reaction of many of the club’s members who had responded with extreme ill-temper to the Guardian’s recent decision to publish the names of about 60 of the Garrick Club’s most influential members. There has been an orgy of mansplaining in newspaper comment pieces. The Garrick’s rules prohibit networking or even working inside the building, these members say, so it would be very wrong-headed and silly to believe that anything of any consequence ever happens within the club’s four walls. The Garrick is merely a spot for friendly relaxation.

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Brazil flooding death toll rises to 90 as more than 155,000 people displaced

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At least 361 injured and 131 missing in southern part of country from what governor called his state’s ‘biggest climate catastrophe’

The death toll from what authorities call the worst climate disaster ever to strike southern Brazil has risen to 90, after ferocious rain flooded huge stretches of Rio Grande do Sul state, displacing more than 155,000 people and forcing the closure of the main airport in the country’s fifth biggest city.

Photographs of the Porto Alegre airport, one of Brazil’s busiest, showed its main terminal had been completely inundated and a cargo plane parked in an expanse of water next to a pair of semi-submerged boarding stairs.

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About 270,000 UK forces records exposed to Chinese hackers

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Payroll data at risk includes names, bank details and addresses of current and former force members, government sources suggest

An estimated 270,000 payroll records belonging to nearly all members of Britain’s armed forces have been exposed to Chinese hackers in a breach at a third-party contractor that was discovered a few days ago.

The data at risk includes names and bank details for full-time military personnel, part-time reservists, including at least one MP, and veterans who left after January 2018. It was managed by a private contractor, SSCL.

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Leeds Green party councillor says sorry for comments about Gaza conflict

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Mothin Ali has not been suspended from city council despite proclaiming ‘Allahu Akbar’ and other remarks causing offence

A Green party councillor at the centre of an antisemitism row has apologised “for the upset caused” by his remarks but hit back at “Islamophobic” attacks against him.

The Green party has launched an investigation into Mothin Ali, who was elected to Leeds city council last week, but has declined to suspend him.

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Drake’s security guard ‘seriously injured’ in shooting at Toronto mansion

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Guard was shot inside Drake’s home and had serious but non-life-threatening injuries, while the assailant fled in a vehicle

A security guard at the mansion of Canadian hip-hop artist Drake has been “seriously injured” in a shooting outside the musician’s Toronto home.

The victim, an adult male, was rushed to a Toronto hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries following the shooting early on Tuesday morning.

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Garrick Club votes to accept female members for first time

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Members back dropping men-only rule in place for 193 years, after Guardian revealed details of membership list

The men-only Garrick Club has finally voted to allow women to become members, 193 years after the London institution first opened its doors.

The vote was passed with 59.98% of votes in favour at the end of a private meeting where several hundred members spent two hours debating whether to permit women to join.

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