Reactions to Julian Assange plea deal differ across the US political divide

Leftist film-maker Michael Moore applauds deal while Mike Pence says it ‘dishonors’ US military members

Reaction to the news that Julian Assange had agreed to plead guilty to a single charge under the Espionage Act in order to go free came from various parts of the US political spectrum on Tuesday.

James Clapper, director of US national intelligence in 2010 when Assange and his WikiLeaks organization published secret US intelligence documents with a consortium of newspapers including the Guardian, told CNN: “I actually think this came out pretty well … Critical to this was his plea of one count of espionage.

“He’s paid his dues,” Clapper added. “There was a damage assessment done at the time – there was concern but I don’t recall direct proof that assets in Afghanistan and Iraq supporting or helping the US were exposed.”

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Hillary Clinton: waste of Biden’s debate time to rebut Trump ‘nonsense’

Former secretary of state, who has debated both men, says Trump ‘starts with nonsense and digresses into blather’

Hillary Clinton has said it would be a “waste of time” for Joe Biden to attempt to refute Donald Trump’s contentions in Thursday’s presidential debate because “it’s nearly impossible to identify what his arguments even are”.

The former secretary of state wrote in a New York Times opinion piece that Trump “starts with nonsense and then digresses into blather”.

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Princess Anne ‘doing fine’ in hospital after injury, husband says

Sir Tim Laurence brings Princess Royal ‘a few little treats from home’ and says she is making ‘slow but sure’ progress

The Princess Royal, who is recovering from head injuries believed to have been inflicted by a horse, is making “slow but sure” progress, her husband has said.

V Adm Sir Tim Laurence visited Anne after she spent a second night at Southmead hospital in Bristol, where she remains under observation having had a concussion.

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PPE worth £1.4bn from single Covid deal destroyed or written off

UK government deal struck at height of pandemic described as ‘colossal misuse of public funds’

An estimated £1.4bn-worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) bought by the government in single a deal has been destroyed or written off, according to new figures described as the worst example of waste in the Covid pandemic.

The figures obtained by the BBC under freedom of information laws showed that 1.57bn items from the NHS supplier Full Support Healthcare will never been used.

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Trump mocked for claiming he was ‘tortured’ in Georgia mugshot arrest

Former US president made the claim in a fundraising email that advertised coffee mugs featuring his mugshot

Donald Trump has been met with a chorus of online mockery after claiming that he was “tortured” while being processed at the Fulton county jail in Georgia last August, an occasion that generated the mugshot that he has since turned into a money-making device as he campaigns for a second presidency.

The outlandish and unsubstantiated claim came in a fundraising email and drew at least one unflattering comparison with one of the former president’s political nemeses: John McCain, the former Republican senator for Arizona whose real experience of torture and incarceration during the Vietnam war was a target for Trump’s mockery.

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Russia-Ukraine war: ICC issues arrest warrants for Russian officials over attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets – as it happened

International criminal court issues arrest warrants for Russia’s former defence minister Sergei Shogu and military chief of staff Valery Gerasimov

President Maia Sandu welcomed the start of the EU accession talks with Moldova, stressing that her country is within the European family.

“We are stronger together,” she said on X.

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Job threat for Australian university staff as claims international student cuts are being weaponised

Leading experts have described Labor’s controversial migration policy as a ‘recipe for chaos’ set to hit campuses

University staff have been threatened with deep job cuts because of the federal government’s proposed international student cap, raising concerns the controversial policy is being weaponised as an “excuse” to slash jobs.

The draft bill, introduced to parliament last month, would give the education minister powers to set a maximum number of new international student enrolments. Leading policy experts have described it as a “recipe for chaos”.

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Newington College head blasts parents for ‘behaviour inconsistent with our values’

Michael Parker criticises ‘deliberate negativity’ of a ‘very small group’ but does not refer directly to opponents of controversial plans to admit girls

The headteacher of the top Sydney school embroiled in a row over becoming co-educational has written to parents and alumni expressing disappointment with a group of people within the school’s community “whose behaviour is inconsistent with our school culture and our values”.

The email, which the Guardian has seen, was sent by the head of Newington College, Michael Parker, on Monday.

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‘Most of it was dead’: scientists discovers one of Great Barrier Reef’s worst coral bleaching events

Analysis of high-resolution drone imagery concludes 97% of corals died at a Lizard Island reef between March and June this year

At least 97% of corals on a reef in the Great Barrier Reef’s north died during one of the worst coral bleaching events the world’s biggest reef system has ever seen, according to new analysis.

Scientists at several institutions used high-resolution drone imagery to track the bleaching and death of corals on a reef at Lizard Island.

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How a Dutton misstep on climate saw him go quiet for three days then come out swinging

Exclusive: Text messages asking ‘did we miss a party room meeting?’ pinged between Coalition MPs, caught out by new ‘position’ on 2030 emissions target

Peter Dutton’s refusal to commit the Coalition to a 2030 emissions reduction target was policy on the run to fix a mistake, when ambiguous comments in a newspaper interview were reported as a shift.

Guardian Australia understands Dutton never intended to declare a new position on the government’s 2030 emissions reduction target, but misspoke during an interview with the Australian newspaper just over two weeks ago. He decided to go quiet for three days and then come out swinging, rather than reveal it was inadvertent.

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Far-right National Rally promises to bar dual nationals from some state jobs in France

Pledge by Jordan Bardella, who aims to become prime minister in the election on 7 July, draws sharp criticism

The far-right National Rally’s pledge to bar dual nationals from certain state jobs in France has been criticised by the left and centrists who say it is a taste of broader discrimination that could be implemented if the party comes to power in snap elections.

Jordan Bardella, who aims to become prime minister if the party wins an absolute majority in parliament on 7 July, announced this week that people with dual nationality would be excluded from “the most strategic posts of state”, which would be reserved for French citizens. In a proposal that rang alarm bells, he said it would apply to strategic security and defence positions.

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ICC issues arrest warrants for Russian officials over alleged Ukraine war crimes

Army chief and ex-minister of defence accused over missile attacks on civilian targets including power plants

The international criminal court (ICC) at The Hague has issued arrest warrants for Russia’s ex-minister of defence and current army chief of staff for alleged war crimes in Ukraine after a missile campaign targeting Ukrainian power plants and other civilian infrastructure during the full-scale invasion.

Ex-minister of defence Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, Valery Gerasimov, are accused of the war crimes of directing attacks at civilian objects and of causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects. They are also accused of crimes against humanity.

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Kenyan police open fire on protesters as crowd try to storm parliament

Demonstrators were protesting against legislation to raise taxes in country reeling from cost-of-living crisis

Police have opened fire on protesters outside Kenya’s parliament as they attempted to storm the building while MPs inside passed legislation to raise taxes.

Police started shooting after teargas and water cannon failed to disperse a crowd of thousands who had overwhelmed officers. Flames could be seen coming from inside the building.

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