Defendant tells court he believed he had consent of woman drugged by her husband

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Connor Sanderson-Doyle is one of four men accused of sexually abusing Joanne Young, who was repeatedly assaulted by her husband, Philip Young

A man has told a court he believed a woman who was repeatedly raped and drugged by her husband had consented when he answered an advert to have sex with her.

Former Tory councillor Philip Young has pleaded guilty to multiple charges of drugging and sexually abusing his wife, Joanne Young, during a 13-year period at their home in Swindon, Wiltshire.

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Mahmood says most care workers will be able to get settlement after 5 years, not 15 as originally proposed – UK politics live

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Home secretary announced 5-year ILR option for care workers won’t apply to people who arrived after May 2025

Downing Street has declined to say how much it cost for the plane carrying Andy Burnham and UK delegates to a Commonwealth leaders’ summit to stop in Manchester to pick him up (see 10.28am), the Press Association reports.

At the morning lobby briefing, asked if this was an appropriate use of public money, the PM’s spokesperson said:

The prime minister’s travel arrangements are made on the basis of security, operational requirements, and value for money for the taxpayer.

The prime minister’s travel arrangements reflect where he was carrying out official government business at the end of last week.

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Shop fridges and freezers across Europe hit by fresh suspected cyber-attack

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Chains in seven countries say cooling unit temperatures rose overnight in incident similar to hack of French shops

Supermarket chains in at least seven European countries have said the temperatures of refrigerators and freezers in some of their shops soared overnight to as high as 50C (122F), echoing a cyber-attack last month that caused millions of euros of damage in France.

Retailers in Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden reported problems with their refrigeration systems on Monday, and several companies confirmed they had been hacked.

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E Jean Carroll fights Trump’s last-ditch push to dismiss $83m damages verdict

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Lawyers file opposition to Trump’s request, telling supreme court justices they do not need ‘to bail out this president’

E Jean Carroll’s lawyers are fighting Donald Trump’s efforts to toss her $83m damages verdict in the US supreme court, telling the justices that they do not need “to bail out this president from the consequences of his repeated litigation choices”.

Jurors delivered Carroll the huge award on 26 January 2024, less than one year after the journalist and author won $5m in her sexual abuse and defamation case against Trump. The president has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing in relation to Carroll.

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Newcastle hospital told woman whose unborn baby had died to go home and ‘book a slot to give birth’

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Trust admits Danielle Brown’s baby would have survived had she not been sent home from RVI days earlier

A seven-months-pregnant woman whose unborn baby had died was sent home from hospital with a booklet for bereaved parents and told to book a slot to give birth.

Danielle Brown, 31, had been discharged from hospital with pre-eclampsia, a potentially life-threatening pregnancy complication. She returned to hospital days later where scans revealed that her daughter, Maisie, had died at about 29 weeks.

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EHRC raises concern with Reform about ‘racial and sexual remarks’ in documentary

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Watchdog writes to Nigel Farage’s party to ask what action it is taking to comply with the Equality Act

The official equalities watchdog has written to Reform UK to raise concerns after an undercover TV documentary showed councillors and candidates for the party expressing racist and misogynistic views, with one of the party’s MPs complaining about ingrained sexism.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it had written to Nigel Farage’s party in the wake of revelations in ITV’s Undercover: A Year in Reform, which was broadcast in October.

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Lindsay Clancy back in court seeking to dismiss murder charges after mistrial

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Lawyers for Massachusetts mother who killed children argue new trial would violate double jeopardy rules

Lindsay Clancy returned to court on Monday in an attempt to dismiss the charges that she murdered her three young children.

The hearing Monday was the second time the Massachusetts mother has been in court since her trial ended with a deadlocked jury in September after jurors were unable to agree on a verdict.

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Guardian Essential poll: record number of Australians are turning their backs on the Melbourne Cup

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Growing disdain for gambling and animal cruelty concerns drive sliding interest in race that once ‘stopped the nation’

A record number of Australians are turning their backs on the Melbourne Cup, with more than two-thirds surveyed saying they have low or zero interest in the annual horse race.

Support for the Melbourne Cup has been sliding consistently for a number of years, but the Guardian Essential poll found just 9% of Australians said they had high interest in the race now – nearly half the proportion in 2025.

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NSW council refuses to show world-renowned Gaza artwork over ‘unacceptable’ safety risk

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Exclusive: Shoalhaven council says Wall of Tears installation by Phil Buehler posed risk to staff, visitors and tenants

A New South Wales local council has refused to show a world-renowned artwork about children killed in Gaza after asking organisers to investigate hiring “armed guards” to counter the risk of “community conflict” over the mural.

The group, Shoalhaven Friends of Palestine, was aiming to show the Wall of Tears installation by American artist Phil Buehler at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery in Nowra on Tuesday, following the work being exhibited around Australia, including on the front lawns of Parliament House in Canberra in September.

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Ryanair faces clash with unions as it mulls pay freezes amid soaring fuel costs

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Airline also weighs up reducing crew on flights and increasing use of AI as part of cost-cutting measures

Ryanair has said it is considering implementing pay freezes, setting the scene for a confrontation with unions as the airline tries to offset soaring fuel costs driven by the Middle East conflict.

The airline is also considering reducing crew numbers on flights and increasing the use of AI, in a cost-cutting drive.

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Hackers send fake nuclear threat alert to Ukraine emergency app

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Residents in Kyiv also warned of chemical attack and street-to-street fighting in false message sent by unknown party

Unknown hackers have targeted Ukraine’s nationwide emergency alert mobile app, sending residents in Kyiv a warning that they were at risk of an imminent nuclear strike.

The app reported a high possibility of nuclear radiation late on Sunday. It also wrongly warned of a chemical threat to the Ukrainian capital and street-to-street fighting. The messages were written in English with spelling mistakes, as well as in Ukrainian.

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Award‑winning Australian children’s author Craig Silvey jailed over child exploitation material

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Jasper Jones writer sent multiple messages about his sexual desire for young boys, Western Australian district court hears

The award‑winning author Craig Silvey sent multiple messages about his sexual desire for young boys and was caught with explicit images of children and adults.

The young adult novelist was jailed on Monday for seven months after pleading guilty to distributing and possessing child exploitation material earlier this year.

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