Starmer accuses Musk of trying to ‘whip up division’ in UK over Henry Nowak murder

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PM says Britons are ‘reasonable, tolerant people’ and backs MP’s legal action against Grok firm over fake sexualised images

Elon Musk is “interfering in our politics” and attempting to create division, Keir Starmer has said in a significant toughening of government language about the X owner.

The prime minister’s comments come after weeks of posts by Musk on his social media platform about the murder of Henry Nowak, many of which have used far-right themes and talking points.

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Mexico’s ex-president accuses US of plotting to weaken governing party

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Andrés Manuel López Obrador says Washington is using investigations into governors and propaganda to boost rivals

Mexico’s former president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has accused US officials of trying to weaken the governing party to strengthen the opposition, amid rising tensions between the two countries over Washington’s investigations into several Mexican governors.

“Some US officials are plotting to weaken Morena and strengthen the rightwing opposition in Mexico with the aim of restoring a subservient, corrupt, mafia-like, and cruel government,” López Obrador wrote in a lengthy letter posted on X on Wednesday.

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Canada endorses embattled marine park’s plan to relocate 30 beluga whales

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Beluga whales, which Marineland threatened to euthanize in 2025, will be moved to sanctuaries in Spain or across US

Canada and an embattled marine park have reached a tentative deal on the future of 30 beluga whales, ending a saga that has captivated the public and angered animal rights groups.

The federal fisheries ministry announced this week that all of Marineland’s belugas would be shipped to either Spain or one of four locations in the US, ending whale captivity in Canada.

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Business secretary attacks ‘entitlement’ of Starmer leadership rivals

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Peter Kyle says British politics fails to reward political accomplishment and Labour risks aping Tory instability

The Labour party has not learned the right lessons from the Conservatives about changing leader, a senior cabinet minister has warned, saying in a swipe at potential challengers that “entitlement is not a qualification”.

Peter Kyle, the business secretary, said he was worried that British politics “rewards the wrong behaviour” and there was little credit for the work of his own department, including negotiating trade deals, rescue packages for companies and preserving British industry.

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Trump to use wartime powers to dole out $700m to coal industry

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US president accused of ‘putting polluters first’ by invoking Defense Production Act to prop up coal output

Donald Trump is to use a wartime presidential authority to hand $700m to coal-fired power plants in the US, the latest move by the president to bolster what he calls “beautiful clean coal” despite it being the dirtiest of fossil fuels.

Trump is using the Defense Production Act, a cold war-era statute used to accelerate American industrial output in times of national need, to provide grants to more than a dozen existing coal plants across the US, including facilities capable of exporting coal.

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Former student arrested after man shot with crossbow at University of Surrey

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Saudi national, 21, held on suspicion of attempted murder over incident at Manor Park student village in Guildford

A former University of Surrey student has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a man was shot with a crossbow in Guildford.

The victim, who is in his 50s and a member of the university’s campus safety team, was seriously injured in the incident and is being treated at Royal Surrey County hospital close to the scene of the shooting.

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Outrage in Argentina after two teen girls murdered as femicide crisis endures

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Country is shaken by the brutal murders of two girls, aged 14 and 17, whose bodies were discovered just days apart

Argentina has reacted with fury after the bodies of two murdered teenage girls were found just two days apart. The latest killings underscore the South American country’s enduring femicide crisis despite years of feminist campaigning, and have prompted alarm over the decision to cut support for victims of gender-based violence under the far-right administration of Javier Milei.

Police found the remains of Agostina Vega, 14, on Saturday, in a field on the outskirts of the city of Córdoba. She had been fatally strangled and her body had been dismembered, according to local media reports.

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Uproar in France as it emerges suspect in case of missing girl had rape allegations dismissed

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Interior minister announces review into handling of the cases after body reportedly found in search for 11-year-old

Outrage has erupted in France after it emerged the main suspect in the case of an 11-year-old girl missing since last week had been repeatedly accused of sexually abusing children with no action taken.

A body was discovered on Thursday and formal identification was under way, an informed source said.

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Hezbollah rejects Israel-Lebanon truce as Trump scrambles to end Iran war

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Group calls ceasefire a ‘roadmap to annihilate part of the Lebanese people’, throwing regional peace talks into doubt

Hezbollah has rejected a US-brokered ceasefire plan agreed by the Lebanese and Israeli governments, throwing the future of a truce in Lebanon and regional peace negotiations into question.

The group’s leader, Naim Qassem, called the plan a “roadmap to annihilate part of the Lebanese people” in a statement on Thursday.

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Missing Sherpa guide found alive on Everest after funeral rites had begun

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Climbing support team rescue Hillary Dawa Sherpa almost a week on from when he was last seen

A Nepali guide who was believed to have died on Mount Everest has been found crawling to base camp a week after going missing – and after his funeral rites had begun.

Dawa Sherpa, also known as Hillary Dawa Sherpa after the famous climber Edmund Hillary, was last seen on 29 May but did not reach base camp with other climbing groups.

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Nauru issues rare statement after whistleblower alleges violent threats against Australia’s non-citizens

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Nauran government says its citizens are ‘friendly’ after MP spoke of serious threats allegedly made against former Australian detainees

The Nauruan government has issued a rare statement insisting it is a “friendly” and “welcoming” country after a whistleblower alleged “serious threats of physical violence” were made against a group of non-citizens removed there by the Albanese government.

The unexpected defence, sent shortly after midday Thursday, was mounted hours after independent MP Andrew Wilkie used his three-minute constituency statement to read claims from an anonymous whistleblower familiar with the arrangements of the secretive $2.5bn deal between Australia and Nauru.

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‘That’s a bad combination’: why Australia may be in for a slushy snow season

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Snow arrives in time for the start of ski season, but climate change and El Niño mean it may not stick around for long, experts say

There was optimism across Australian alpine resorts this week as their social media channels filled with footage of snow flurries that arrived just in time for the opening of the ski season this weekend.

“We couldn’t be more excited,” said the Instagram account of Perisher, the southern hemisphere’s biggest ski resort in Kosciuszko national park in New South Wales, as hands swept the fresh snow from outdoor tables.

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‘Embarrassing’: pressure on Merz after Germany’s failure to win UN security council seat

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Criticism comes from across political spectrum after blow to Friedrich Merz’s government

Germany’s unprecedented failure to win one of the rotating seats on the UN security council has prompted an intense round of soul searching in Berlin, and raised questions about its claims to international leadership under Friedrich Merz.

The council vote on Wednesday, which elected Austria and Portugal to a two-year term along with Trinidad and Tobago and Zimbabwe, was a blow to Merz’s struggling government, which has sought to position itself as a leading European voice on the world stage.

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Experts criticise plan for American-only Ebola quarantine centre in Kenya

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Plan departs from policy of bringing CDC staff back to US for treatment and offering support to all health workers

Former top US officials and other experts are urging the Trump administration to abandon plans for an Ebola quarantine and treatment centre in Kenya, as the union for workers with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls for Americans exposed to Ebola to be brought home for treatment.

Soon after the US revealed it was setting up a field hospital in Kenya for the Ebola quarantine and treatment of Americans, the Kenyan high court blocked the order – but the Kenyan and US governments moved forward anyway, with the first American responders reportedly landing at the Laikipia airbase on Saturday.

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Bondi attack hero Ahmed al-Ahmed charged with assaulting his father

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Police allege the 44-year-old lauded for disarming one of the gunmen in December’s attack put his father in a headlock

The Sydney man who disarmed one of the Bondi terror attackers has been charged with assaulting his father.

Ahmed al-Ahmed, 44, is accused of allegedly putting his father in a headlock on 9 March at a house in Bankstown, in the city’s west.

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Police warn families of Tiananmen crackdown dead not to visit graves on 37th anniversary – AP News

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  1. Police warn families of Tiananmen crackdown dead not to visit graves on 37th anniversary  AP News
  2. China, US clash over Tiananmen anniversary; Taiwan says face up to history  Reuters
  3. Hong Kong artist who tried to mark Tiananmen massacre with red thread intercepted by police  The Guardian
  4. China: ‘Heartless’ ban on Tiananmen Mothers visiting cemetery signals escalating repression  Amnesty International
  5. The 37th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre  U.S. Consulate General Hong Kong & Macau (.gov)
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Hezbollah’s Fiber-Optic Drones Expose Cracks in Israeli Defenses – The New York Times

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  1. Hezbollah’s Fiber-Optic Drones Expose Cracks in Israeli Defenses  The New York Times
  2. IDF northern chief Rafi Milo narrowly escaped Hezbollah drone strike  The Jerusalem Post
  3. Four IDF Soldiers Wounded in South Lebanon Drone Strike, Military Says  Haaretz
  4. IDF probing Hezbollah use of drones with possible night-vision cameras  The Times of Israel
  5. Hezbollah launches cross-border attack as Israeli strikes kill nine in Lebanon  France 24
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Mount Everest: Sherpa guide found alive after going missing for six days – BBC

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  1. Mount Everest: Sherpa guide found alive after going missing for six days  BBC
  2. Guide missing for a week on Mount Everest found crawling to base camp: "Nothing short of a miracle"  CBS News
  3. Sherpa guide missing for a week on Mount Everest rescued while crawling to base camp  ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos
  4. Everest Sherpa Still Missing as Outfitter Faces Questions  Explorersweb »
  5. Update: A Sherpa Guide on Mount Everest Has Been Rescued Six Days After Going Missing  Outside Magazine
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Penny Wong says she believes Israeli soldiers sexually assaulted and abused Australian women after Gaza flotilla

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Foreign affairs minister says her position is to ‘always believe women’ when sexual assault allegations are made

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says she believes the Australian women who have alleged they were sexually assaulted and beaten by Israeli soldiers after being detained as part of a humanitarian flotilla attempting to bring aid to Gaza.

Appearing at Senate estimates, Wong said the treatment of the Australian women was “unacceptable”, and the allegations they had subsequently made were “distressing”.

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All EU states back opening formal accession talks with Ukraine after Hungary deal – The Kyiv Independent

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  1. All EU states back opening formal accession talks with Ukraine after Hungary deal  The Kyiv Independent
  2. All EU members greenlight first step in accession talks, Ukraine PM says  Reuters
  3. Ukraine and Moldova on course to start formal EU membership talks in June  politico.eu
  4. EU ambassadors urgently discuss opening first cluster for Ukraine on evening of 3 June  Українська правда
  5. The EU should fast-track Ukraine’s membership of the club – it has the most to gain | Mujtaba Rahman  The Guardian
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