Farage says he will ‘make statement on my future in public life at 2pm’ – UK politics live

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The Reform UK leader will speak after Labour asked the Electoral Commission to investigate claims that he broke electoral law by not disclosing gifts

Q: Do you think the parliamentary commissioner for standards should investigate Nigel Farage’s gifts from George Cottrell?

Badenoch said that was a matter for the commissioner.

[Farage is] hinting at press regulation. For all of the criticism and the attacks, and I would even say abuse that I’ve got from the press, I’ve never once recommended curbing our free press. I think this is one of the amazing things about this country.

I would be very worried about a Reform government using government power to control the press. I don’t think that that would be right.

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Prince Harry begins visit to the UK as ruling expected in court battle with Daily Mail publisher – latest updates

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Result of court case against Associated Newspapers Limited expected this afternoon

Prince Harry has arrived at Chatham House for the first in a series of week-long events celebrating his Invictus Games and ahead of an imminent court ruling.

Harry looked business-like as he stepped from his vehicle at around 1.15pm ahead of the highly-anticipated judgement in his High Court case against the Daily Mail’s publisher expected shortly on Tuesday afternoon.

Harry’s relationship with Laura Gerard-Leigh

Harry’s relationship with Chelsy Davy

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Bomb attack rocks Damascus during Macron visit – Reuters

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  1. Bomb attack rocks Damascus during Macron visit  Reuters
  2. Eighteen wounded as explosions rock Damascus during Macron’s visit to Syria  Al Jazeera
  3. French President Emmanuel Macron safe after bomb blasts near his hotel in Damascus  CBS News
  4. Macron arrives in Syria as first major Western leader to visit war-torn country under new leadership  AP News
  5. The Debate - France's Macron to hold post-Assad visit to Damascus: Why the Syria stopover?  France 24
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NATO summit begins in Turkey as Trump pushes for more defense spending and ponders Greenland – CBS News

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  1. NATO summit begins in Turkey as Trump pushes for more defense spending and ponders Greenland  CBS News
  2. Live updates: Trump heads to NATO summit in Ankara as he piles pressure on alliance  CNN
  3. ‘Everything I’ve ever asked him for, he’s done’: Erdoğan takes the stage as NATO’s Trump whisperer  Politico
  4. Trump arrives in Turkey as NATO is strained by Russian attacks, U.S. impatience  CNBC
  5. Trump’s NATO-bashing casts shadow over U.S. pledge to defend allies  The Washington Post
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Tanker set ablaze after being struck by projectile in the Strait of Hormuz as Iran mourns Khamenei – AP News

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  1. Tanker set ablaze after being struck by projectile in the Strait of Hormuz as Iran mourns Khamenei  AP News
  2. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Fires Missiles at Ships Near Hormuz  WSJ
  3. Saudi-Flagged Crude Oil Tanker Sustained Damage in Hormuz Strait  Bloomberg.com
  4. Oil prices rise after report of Iranian attack on commercial ships in Strait of Hormuz  CNBC
  5. Iranian Strikes on Ships Test Cease-Fire and Threaten Energy Flows in Gulf  The New York Times
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Woman suspected of Monaco bombing found shot dead near Kyiv

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Anastasiia Berezovska was being sought by police over attack that seriously injured a Ukraine-born businessman

A woman suspected of carrying out last week’s bomb attack in Monaco that seriously injured a Ukraine-born business tycoon has been found shot dead near Kyiv, in the latest twist in a case that has shaken the wealthy Mediterranean principality.

Ukrainian prosecutors said on Tuesday the woman had been found with a gunshot wound to the head and that two men had been arrested in connection with the case, including an officer with Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) and a former law enforcement officer.

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What will define Elon Musk’s legacy? Doge cuts to USAID Ebola programs

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Experts say cuts have hindered the response to DRC’s Ebola outbreak and resulted in ‘significant numbers’ of deaths

Elon Musk has an Ebola problem. SpaceX stock dropped precipitously after its initial public offering, and Tesla faces a wave of lawsuits. But instead of focusing on his companies, Musk has posted frequently on X about the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which he helped dismantle – or, in his words, feed into the woodchipper – last year.

“Elon’s USAID crash-out over the past week has been a thing to behold,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former top USAID official who oversaw the agency’s Ebola response in 2014-2015 and the president of Refugees International. “In a way, it’s helpful that Elon is doing this, because it’s putting attention back on the issue of what he did last year.”

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Woman suspected of Monaco bomb attack found dead in Ukraine – BBC

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  1. Woman suspected of Monaco bomb attack found dead in Ukraine  BBC
  2. Monaco bombing attack suspect found shot dead in Ukraine, officials say  CNN
  3. Woman suspected of Monaco bombing found shot dead near Kyiv  The Guardian
  4. Woman suspected in Monaco bomb attack on Ukrainian magnate found dead in Kyiv  CBS News
  5. Woman suspected in Monaco bombing found shot dead near Kyiv, report says  Reuters
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Bank of England plans to ease capital rules despite AI stability fears

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Central bank’s financial policy committee members voice concern on trimming big lenders’ financial buffers

The Bank of England is planning to loosen capital requirements for major UK lenders, even as policymakers expressed concern about the threat to financial stability from rapid AI developments and debt-fuelled stock investments.

The central bank said on Tuesday it was looking to remove and loosen some rules introduced after the 2008 financial crisis that determine the size of the financial cushion required to absorb losses and protect consumers and taxpayers when things go wrong.

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Perth man fighting for life after robot vacuum cleaner explosion

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Lachie Perrem suffered life-threatening injuries after the explosion on Thursday destroyed his share house in Brabham

A Perth man has spent five days fighting for his life after a robot vacuum cleaner explosion set fire to his home.

Lachie Perrem, aged in his 20s, was taken to hospital on Thursday with life-threatening burns from a blaze that left his fiancee and housemates without their home.

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Bombs explode near Damascus hotel housing Macron on Syria visit

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Blasts did not interrupt French president’s visit but are setback for Syrian leaders’ attempt to project stability

Explosions rocked Damascus near the hotel where French president, Emmanuel Macron, was staying on Tuesday, wounding at least 18 people, Syrian authorities said.

Macron was in the presidential palace for a meeting with the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, when two improvised explosive devices detonated near the Four Seasons hotel where Macron was reported to be staying.

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Israeli officer shown throwing stun grenade into car during West Bank raid

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Border police officer under investigation after CCTV footage shows him shouting at car’s occupants and throwing device

Israeli police have opened an investigation after CCTV footage showed a border police officer throwing a stun grenade into a car carrying young Palestinians during a raid on the Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

The footage from Sunday, released by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, shows an officer approaching a car and shouting at its occupants.

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Ukrainian drones hit Russia’s largest oil refinery as Zelenskyy says Siberia now ‘within reach’ – CNBC

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  1. Ukrainian drones hit Russia’s largest oil refinery as Zelenskyy says Siberia now ‘within reach’  CNBC
  2. Ukraine Says It Hit Russian Ships to Deepen Crimea’s Fuel Crunch  Bloomberg.com
  3. Ukrainian drones hit Russia's largest refinery, in one of deepest strikes yet  Reuters
  4. Ukrainian drones hit St Petersburg oil terminal and nearby port  The Guardian
  5. Watch: Ukraine targets Russia's 'shadow fleet'; hits 8 fuel tankers on Crimea route  The Times of India
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Thames Water creditors ‘will bid for company even if it is nationalised’

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Group of 100 investors still discussing £10bn rescue proposal with officials from regulator Ofwat, says report

Thames Water’s creditors are willing to pursue their bid for the debt-laden company even if the probable next prime minister, Andy Burnham, brings it into temporary nationalisation.

The group of 100 institutional investors, which hold about £14bn of Thames’s senior debt, are still discussing a £10bn rescue proposal for the struggling company with officials from the regulator Ofwat, and they have held meetings in recent days.

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Red scare revived as Trump leads push to attack Democrats as ‘communists’

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In wake of primary wins by leftwing candidates in New York and elsewhere, president has resorted to well-worn tactic

Moments after Donald Trump rang the ceremonial opening bell on Monday, starting the trading day from the Oval Office, 232 miles north on Wall Street, the US senator Ted Cruz celebrated the president’s new savings accounts as his administration’s “New Deal”.

“But instead of having government taking care of everyone,” the Republican senator declared, “Trump accounts are about making every child and every American a capitalist.”

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Female US rower reflects on ‘surreal’ record-breaking journey from California to Hawaii

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Kelsey Pfendler, 32, says she hopes her solo 2,400-mile trek across the mid-Pacific inspires other women to take risks

A Grand Canyon river-rafting guide who recently became the first US woman to row solo from California to Hawaii – traveling in record time – says she hopes her accomplishment inspires other women to push their limits and take risks.

“It’s really motivating to think [that], maybe one day, I will get to see another woman work even harder to do what I did,” Kelsey Pfendler, 32, told ABC’s Good Morning America program on Monday, three days after completing the record-setting journey across the mid-Pacific. “And it would be so special to watch.”

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Russia touts ‘war with NATO’ amid losses in Ukraine – Al Jazeera

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  1. Russia touts ‘war with NATO’ amid losses in Ukraine  Al Jazeera
  2. As NATO meets, Putin is weighing his options in Ukraine, and further afield  CNN
  3. Kremlin says Russia will follow NATO summit closely  Reuters
  4. Opinion | Europe braces for a Russian provocation  The Washington Post
  5. Opinion | The West Has Let Russia Off the Hook. Time to Tighten the Screws.  The New York Times
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Accused double murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon’s mother granted bail – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

Richard Marles said he doubted China tested the long-range weapon yesterday in response to Anthony Albanese being in the Pacific to sign a new defence alliance with Fiji but said Australia remained deeply concerned by the development. He told ABC News:

At the end of the day, what we’re seeing here is a long-range missile test from China, which China itself has said is nuclear-capable … This is China demonstrating a much greater range in terms of being able to deploy a nuclear weapon.

And ultimately what that is, is deeply destabilising.

Our fundamental issue in relation to China is that we have seen a very dramatic military buildup by China without that strategic reassurance [to our neighbours].

There really isn’t an explanation as to why they are building the capabilities that they are and that is fundamentally destabilising.

I think the system is handling the matter as it should … I think it’s appropriate that the legal process takes its course.

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