Ed Miliband has overturned decades of Foreign Office inertia on illegal Israeli settlements

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Foreign secretary ends UK’s feigned helplessness with sanctions and description of Israel’s actions as ethnic cleansing

The indefatigable ability of UK Foreign Office ministers over decades to issue boilerplate statements of concern about the extension of illegal settlements in Israel has long been a matter of ridicule.

Even some of the Conservative ministers who issued them, notably Alan Duncan and Alistair Burt, have agreed. Duncan described the UK stance towards settlements as weak and naive, while Burt wondered at the ability of the Foreign Office to find new forms of diplomatic condemnation that never amounted to any specific action. Margaret Thatcher, often torn as prime minister between her natural sympathy for Israel and her fear of the Gulf states falling under the sway of the Soviet Union, similarly expressed her anger at the settlements.

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UK air traffic control problem strands hundreds of thousands of passengers

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At least 600 flights cancelled as airlines call for overhaul of ATC system after third incident in as many years

Hundreds of thousands of air passengers had flights delayed or cancelled after another UK air traffic control technical glitch kept planes grounded for hours on Tuesday.

Airlines demanded action after a “technical issue” at the air traffic control services provider Nats caused the third large-scale stoppage in just over three years.

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UK to force Apple and Google to block explicit images on children’s smartphones

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Lisa Nandy says government will introduce legislation after talks deadline ends without breakthrough

Apple and Google will be forced to block explicit images on children’s smartphones by law in the UK after talks failed to produce a breakthrough, the government has said.

The legislation commitment puts ministers on a collision course with two of the biggest players in Silicon Valley, months after the government announced a social media ban for under-16s.

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United Utilities fined £1m after discharging raw sewage into Lancashire coast

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Sewage plume reached seven bathing waters and significantly affected water quality in June 2023

United Utilities has been fined nearly £1m after illegally discharging raw sewage into the Lancashire coastline and polluting seaside holiday locations including Blackpool.

The water company pleaded guilty to five environmental permit offences relating to a pollution incident along the Fylde coast in June 2023, and was ordered by Preston magistrates court on Tuesday to pay £964,225 in fines and costs.

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Smithsonian Institution secretary to retire amid Trump attacks on museum independence

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‘I have to be honest, it has been stressful,’ Lonnie Bunch III says

The Smithsonian Institution’s secretary, Lonnie Bunch III, will retire at the end of the year amid Donald Trump’s attacks on the museum’s content and independence.

Bunch, who was appointed in 2019 as the first African American to lead the museums, cited personal reasons for departing, while acknowledging the pressure that the president’s attacks on the Smithsonian’s depictions of US history had taken.

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US federal court says no constitutional right to clean water in Mississippi case

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Appeals court dismisses lawsuit from Jackson residents claiming that tainted drinking water violated their rights

A US appellate court has decided that the federal constitution does not guarantee a right to clean water.

That legal opinion came in the form of a decision on Friday from the fifth circuit court of appeals to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of a 2022 lawsuit from several Jackson, Mississippi, residents claiming that tainted drinking water violated their constitutional rights.

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Victims of deadly Amazon cargo plane crash identified, as two more remain critical

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The victims, employees of an aircraft cleaning company, were in a van when the plane crashed into it

Officials in Florida on Tuesday identified the five people killed in Saturday’s Amazon cargo plane crash at Miami international airport – and said two more remained hospitalized in critical condition.

At a morning news conference, the Miami-Dade sheriff, Rosie Cordero-Stutz, also said both pilots of the Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767, which careered off the end of the airport’s runway and struck at least two vehicles, were released from the hospital after treatment.

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Trump renames places and poses as superhero in bizarre social media blitz

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Trump passed the long weekend posting a torrent of memes and musings on his Truth Social platform

The long weekend may have proved too long for Donald Trump, who passed the time by musing about annexing other countries, unilaterally renaming places he’s not allowed to rename and turning himself into a superhero.

Amid the torrent of memes and posts by the president on his Truth Social platform over the Labor Day holiday weekend was a bizarre AI-generated video depicting Trump as the Green Lantern DC superhero, wielding a glowing green power ring to erect his border wall, illuminate an “American manufacturing” scene, and command a fleet of warplanes and warships behind him.

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British family of man abducted by Saudi Arabia speak out over nine-year ordeal

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Mira Lozi says quiet diplomacy has failed to free Rami Naimi who was first seized in Dubai in 2017

A British woman has spoken out for the first time about the alleged abduction, torture and coercion of her husband at the hands of Saudi authorities, after nine years of “failed” quiet diplomacy.

The businessman Rami Naimi was first abducted in Dubai in 2017 on his return from a trip to Australia with his father. After being tortured, he was released the following year.

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UK accuses Israeli ‘terrorists’ of ethnic cleansing in West Bank with government backing

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In strongest condemnation ever by UK government, Ed Miliband announces sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements

Israeli “terrorists” are conducting ethnic cleansing in the West Bank with the tacit backing of the government, the UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband has said, as he announced sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements.

In the strongest condemnation ever issued by the UK government, Miliband said the government would now take the official position that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was unlawful in its entirety, saying such acknowledgment was “the least the people who face such suffering deserve. And it should be the prelude to justice.”

An import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

A comprehensive sanctions regime against providing services such as construction or financing for Israeli settlements.

A ban on the advertising in the UK of illegal settlement properties.

Personal sanctions against key individuals accused of promoting settler violence.

A new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”.

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Artworks stolen from Renoir Museum on French Riviera in latest heist

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Thieves took four artworks but it is thought they dropped two in museum garden as they fled

French police are hunting two thieves who escaped with two Renoir paintings from a museum on the French Riviera after breaking in through a hole cut in its garden fence.

Bryan Masson, the mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, about 10 miles west of Nice, said the pair appeared to have been “well equipped and well informed” about the museum, which houses works by the French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in his former home.

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Flushing the toilet can release a ‘plume’ of breathable pathogens – and closing the lid won’t stop their escape

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New research shows turbulent flushes create toilet-generated aerosols that can transmit legionella, influenza and norovirus

Flushing toilets release particles into the “breathing zone” of adults and can remain suspended in the air for at least 20 seconds, a new study has found.

And closing the lid might not be enough to avoid a “plume” of potential pathogens.

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Houthis strike Saudi Arabian cities in significant expansion of Middle East war

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Riyadh says it will retaliate after overnight attacks by Iran-backed Yemen group on oil facilities wound more than 70

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have attacked four cities in Saudi Arabia, wounding more than 70 people and setting oil installations ablaze in what appeared to be a significant expansion of the Middle East war.

Saudi Arabia said it would retaliate after the overnight strikes – reportedly involving dozens of drones and missiles – that targeted several oil facilities in the country’s south.

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Mother flagged faulty smoke alarms before house fire that killed father and five children, court hears

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Pre-inquest conference into Queensland deaths hears witnesses did not hear any smoke alarms during 2023 fire

A landlord was repeatedly warned about improperly installed smoke alarms before a house fire that killed a father and five children in Queensland in 2023, a coroner has heard.

Deputy state coroner Donald MacKenzie held a pre-inquest conference into the Russell Island deaths on Tuesday.

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One Nation’s Warren Pickering admits to illegal drug use and says he is ‘no angel’ in extraordinary press conference

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Victorian One Nation leader says his actions ‘hurt people I loved, and I will live with that forever’

The Victorian One Nation leader, Warren Pickering, has admitted he “made mistakes” in his 20s, including using ecstasy, methamphetamines and marijuana, losing his licence multiple times for drink driving and hurting people he loved.

But he has denied claims by his ex-partner, published by The Australian, that he smoked ice – also known as crystal meth – in front of children and said he was considering legal action against the publication at a press conference on Tuesday. Guardian Australia and the ABC were barred from attending the press conference.

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Tokyo tourist hotspot bans short-term rentals amid surge in complaints

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Shinjuku ward targets accommodation in residential areas and near cultural sites as locals complain visitors disposing of rubbish improperly and being too noisy

A neighbourhood in Tokyo popular with foreign tourists will ban visitors from using thousands of short-term rental accommodations after a slew of complaints about behaviour.

In the latest sign that Japan’s patience with mass tourism is wearing thin, Shinjuku ward – home to the notorious Kabukicho nightlife district and the world’s busiest railway station – will prevent visitors from using private lodgings in residential areas and near schools and important cultural sites, Japanese media reported this week.

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