Body of former MP, 78, found with serious injuries at her Dartmoor home on Thursday morning
A murder investigation has been launched after the suspicious death of the former MP Ann Widdecombe at her home on Dartmoor, in Devon, police have said.
Widdecombe’s body was found with “serious injuries” by the ambulance service at an address in Haytor, Devon, at 11.40am on Thursday. The police said officers were searching for a “white male” in connection with her death.
Continue reading...Kai Wegner admits poor communication in handling of power blackout overshadowed his other political work
Berlin’s embattled mayor has abandoned his campaign to stand for reelection after failing to recover from a row over his decision to play tennis while large parts of the German capital were hit by a power blackout in January.
Kai Wegner announced on Friday afternoon that he would not run in Berlin’s 20 September election after coming under huge pressure to step down from his party, the Christian Democrats (CDU). Some members wrote an open letter to Wegner this week in which they appealed to him to withdraw his candidacy.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Prospective PM wants to give the country a hopeful message, in contrast with Starmer’s early missteps
Andy Burnham will undertake a summer tour as prime minister to Labour “danger zones” across the country where the party has been losing support, particularly areas hit by controversial government policies.
Burnham is planning the tour for the second half of the summer recess, with the aim of resetting Labour’s relationship with some of the UK’s most sceptical voters.
Continue reading...Medieval artwork safely delivered to British Museum before display from September in carefully controlled conditions
The Bayeux tapestry has survived myriad perils, from cathedral fires to its potential destruction for use as wagon covers. Now, with the embroidery about to be displayed in a blockbuster London exhibition, experts must contend with a host of more insidious dangers.
The arrival of the tapestry at the British Museum in the small hours of Friday morning was a historic moment – albeit less dramatic than the landing of William the Conqueror it portrays.
Continue reading...Thames Valley police reportedly wish to talk to brother and sister-in-law about her allegations of sexual assault
Detectives investigating Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor are to travel to the US to speak with the family of his accuser Virginia Giuffre, it has been reported.
Thames Valley police are believed to want to talk to Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law, Sky and Amanda Roberts, about their sister’s allegations of sexual assault by the former Duke of York. He has denied the claims of Giuffre, who took her own life in April last year, aged 41.
Continue reading...Range of potential measures announced by Ofcom include reducing risk of accounts being hijacked for scams
Big tech platforms will be required to ban scam advertisers in the UK under proposals to tackle online fraud.
Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, X and YouTube will have to block bad actors who post fraudulent ads and prevent them from creating new accounts in a range of measures targeted at the biggest services.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Records obtained by the Guardian show property owned by Catholic order used to house at least two brothers with horrific histories of child sexual abuse
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Christian Brothers properties have been used to house convicted child sexual abuse offenders, including one brother who preyed on orphans and another who was kept in teaching positions for almost three decades after senior officials became aware of his offending.
The Christian Brothers prompted fury from survivors last month when it declared it was about to go broke, and could no longer afford to meet their claims in court.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Resignation comes after abuse survivor said she was devastated her father, who was jailed for 48 years, was interviewed for the Shadow of Doubt podcast
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The journalist Richard Guilliatt has resigned from the Walkley awards judging board after the Walkley Foundation dismissed complaints about his podcast and then handed an award to the journalist whose reports were critical of him.
Nina Funnell won a mid-year Walkley for freelance journalist of the year for a series of three articles in news.com.au about a survivor of sexual assault who was abused by her own parents for 14 years.
Continue reading...Nathan Johnson says if elected he’ll investigate state’s deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to provide rural internet
A Texas Democrat running to become the state’s attorney general has said he will investigate Elon Musk’s SpaceX company if elected, saying it “sure looks like” corruption was involved in a deal he said handed the world’s richest man $110m of taxpayers’ money.
Nathan Johnson made the comment in an interview with the Dallas News on Friday, in which he called for greater legislative scrutiny of state grants funneled to SpaceX for its Starlink satellite program, which provides fast internet access for customers in remote areas.
Continue reading...Asylum seekers win ruling against home secretary’s reduction of safeguards for potential victims of trafficking
The British home secretary’s decision to reduce protections for potential trafficking victims to allow the “one in, one out” asylum returns deal to proceed was unlawful, a high court judge has ruled.
The legal challenge was brought by five small boat asylum seekers earmarked for return to France – four from Eritrea and one from Sudan. It related to a change in guidance on the one in, one out scheme, which meant that those denied trafficking protections no longer had the right to ask for it to be reconsidered.
Continue reading...Serbian man reportedly saved by wife hanging on to his legs after window shattered on journey from Greece
A passenger on a Ryanair flight was reportedly almost sucked out of a window after it shattered in mid-air during a journey from Greece.
The man was said to have been lifted out of his seat into the plane’s slipstream and hung headfirst out of the window after an engine failure resulted in parts smashing the acrylic window, according to local reports.
Continue reading...Helicopter pilots were suspended from duty after a low-level stunt over beachgoers during holiday aviation show
Eight South Carolina national guard helicopter pilots have been returned to flying duties following a suspension over a low-flying sweep over beachgoers as part of a Fourth of July event honoring service members.
“Effective immediately, the suspension of all involved South Carolina pilots has been lifted,” the Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, wrote on Friday morning on social media. “Carry on Patriots.”
Continue reading...Innocent man lynched by mob in West Bengal as police killing of suspect further escalates tensions
Protests have engulfed the Indian state of West Bengal after the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl, the subsequent lynching of an innocent man and the police killing of one of the accused.
Outrage erupted on Sunday after the body of a missing girl was recovered from a pond in a town just outside the state capital, Kolkata.
Continue reading...Twenty-three people missing and at least four Britons thought to be among those who died fleeing Almería blaze
At least 12 people have been killed and 23 are unaccounted for after one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires broke out in the south-eastern province of Almería as the country endures its second heatwave of the summer.
The regional government of Andalucía said the victims, four of whom are believed to be British, had died while trying to escape the flames near the village of Bédar in the municipality of Los Gallardos.
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