Convicted killer denies murdering two friends whose remains were found near his Cornwall cabin

James Desborough told court he had discovered bodies of Claudio Aquilino and Daniel Coleman on his land near St Austell

A convicted killer accused of murdering two of his friends whose remains were found burnt and dismembered near his Cornish woodland cabin has insisted he did not kill them but had discovered their bodies on his land.

James Desborough claimed he came upon one of the bodies hanging from a tree and the second lying naked in a stream.

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Millions face long-term coastal flooding risk in UK without climate action, scientists warn

A ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ suggests need for large-scale movement of populations away from reshaped coast

Up to 13 million people in the UK face the long-term risk of coastal flooding due to the climate crisis, scientists have warned, with a “reasonable worst-case scenario” suggesting the need for the large-scale movement of populations away from a dramatically reshaped coast.

Even if today’s global pledges to cut carbon pollution are met, about 1.4 million more people will be exposed to coastal floods in 2200 and 1.7 million in 2300 due to the sea level rise driven by melting ice caps and warming oceans.

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Former Met police chief admits force failed to properly control spycops unit

Paul Condon tells inquiry there was ‘appalling behaviour by individual officers’ but that greater fault was systemic

A former Metropolitan police commissioner has admitted that the force failed over decades to properly control a controversial undercover unit that committed “horrendous” abuses, the spycops inquiry has heard.

Paul Condon said he was appalled by the wrongdoing of the unit, which spent 40 years spying on tens of thousands of political activists.

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Godzilla v Kong actor Kaylee Hottle dies aged 18

The deaf actor, who played a major role in Godzilla v Kong and its 2024 sequel, was killed in a car crash in Maryland

Kaylee Hottle, who played a major role in Godzilla v Kong and the sequel Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, has died at the age of 18.

Her death was confirmed by her father, Joshua, in a video shared on Facebook. The stream was in American Sign Language (ASL) as the Hottle family is all deaf. “I am taking a flight that I never would like to take,” is the name of the video.

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India’s Cockroach movement protesters show no sign of backing down

Thousands of people again on the streets of Delhi calling for education reforms despite police violence on Monday

Taru had come to the protest prepared this time. In one hand was an anti-government poster and in the other was a bicycle helmet. “We need to have protection in case Delhi police beat us up again,” said the 25-year-old, who stood among her friends. “We are not scared of them and we won’t run away, no matter what they do. We’ll stay here till they listen.”

On Tuesday, central Delhi still thronged with thousands of protesters, as an unprecedented expression of dissent against the powerful ruling Narendra Modi government showed no sign of abating.

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Russian warship carries out rare live-fire exercise 45 miles off UK coast

New defence secretary Wes Streeting denounces drill by Neustrashimy as ‘performative and irresponsible’

A Russian warship fired its main cannon in a short notice test 45 miles south of Plymouth on Monday, the day Andy Burnham was appointed as prime minister.

The Neustrashimy suddenly announced it intended to fire its guns in the morning and requested that a British warship, which had been tracking it, retreat a couple of miles to a safe distance.

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Spanish hotel chain ceases operations in Cuba under pressure from Washington

Meliá group says Donald Trump’s sanctions make it ‘impossible’ to keep any of its 34 sites open

A Spanish hotel chain is to cease all operations in Cuba at the end of the week due to “major difficulties” in doing business on the island under growing pressure from Washington.

The latest US sanctions make it “impossible, de facto and de jure, to maintain even minimal operational stability”, the Meliá group explained in a statement on Tuesday to the Spanish stock market regulator.

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Zendaya faces backlash for wearing ancient Iranian jewellery at Odyssey event

Film star promotes Christopher Nolan film epic wearing gold artefacts dating back almost 3,000 years

The Odyssey is a story about a Greek king’s long journey home. But a pair of earrings worn on the new film adaptation’s press tour – and their long separation from their homeland – is sparking controversy.

At a photocall in London, Zendaya, who plays the goddess Athena in the Christopher Nolan film, wore a pair of earrings fashioned from Iranian artefacts dating back to 700BC.

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The Queensland government promised to put victims first. Instead it buried a report from domestic violence survivors

Exclusive: Report from LNP-convened panel heavily criticises police responses to family violence and calls for civilian oversight

The Queensland government has buried the findings of its own working group of domestic violence victim-survivors, after their report was heavily critical of police responses and called for a “civilian review mechanism” to escalate complaints about police.

The Liberal National government has repeatedly said it would “put victims at the heart” of the state’s justice policies.

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US identifies soldier killed destroying downed Iranian drone in Iraq

Sgt Michael Emmanuel Swinton died during controlled detonation, bringing total of US personnel killed in war to 17

The US military has identified an army soldier killed recently during a “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone in Iraq as Sgt Michael Emmanuel Swinton, of Fayetteville, North Carolina.

According to a press release from the US defense department on Tuesday morning, the 30-year-old Swinton was supporting overseas contingency operations in Iraq – and he was “killed in action during a controlled detonation of a downed One-Way Unmanned Aerial System” on Saturday at Erbil airbase in northern Iraq.

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Trump’s HIV funding cuts having ‘severe and devastating’ impact around the world

The President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief has saved 26m lives globally, but slashing of funds and dismantling of USAID have forced clinics to shut in dozens of countries

No part of the United States’ anti-HIV programme has escaped unscathed from Donald Trump’s funding cuts, despite pledges from the administration to protect care that saved lives around the world, a new report has found.

Funding cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) have caused “severe and devastating” disruption globally, with thousands of staff laid off and many clinics closed, according to research being presented next week at the 26th International Aids Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It warns that changes in US policy risk reversing progress in the fight against HIV/Aids.

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Fourth person dies in New York City legionnaires’ disease outbreak

US health officials say source of Upper East Side cluster has probably been eliminated after 76 people fell ill

An outbreak of legionnaires’ disease in New York City has claimed a fourth life, officials have said, as they again expressed confidence the source of the exposure had been eliminated.

A statement from the city’s health department on Monday said the outbreak, which was traced to cooling towers in buildings in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, had sickened 76 people – with 53 discharged after hospital treatment, and 12 others managing their recovery at home.

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Stand still, make eye contact: Denmark tells tourists how to behave in a wolf encounter

Government urges visitors not to approach or feed wolves as it manages safety amid growing population

Danish authorities have advised tourists to stand still, make eye contact and put up “maximum resistance” in the event of attack if they encounter a wolf while on holiday.

After a 200-year absence, wolves started returning to Denmark in 2012. There are now estimated to be 49 wolves on the Danish peninsula of Jutland.

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US claims of Cuba’s ‘unique threat’ jar with reality of hunger and blackouts

State department’s 100-page report is latest push in Trump administration campaign to bring down government

The US government’s latest allegations that Cuba is behind “many of the most significant upheavals in recent American political history” and that its leaders pose “a unique threat to American homeland security” have come as startling revelations to those living under the six-month-long US oil blockade in Havana, where desperate people search through piles of uncollected rubbish for food, or else swelter at home in 24-hour-plus blackouts.

The unsigned 100-page report, Cuba: Capital of 21st-Century Communism, published by the US state department on Monday, blames Havana for everything from “the George Floyd riots to the rise of antifa to the explosion of pro-terrorist activism on American college campuses”.

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India’s youth-led Cockroach movement vows to continue protest after police crackdown – AP News

  1. India’s youth-led Cockroach movement vows to continue protest after police crackdown  AP News
  2. India's youth-led Cockroach movement vows to continue protest after police crackdown  NPR
  3. ‘Won’t back down’: Indian student protesters return after police crackdown  Al Jazeera
  4. India’s youth-led 'cockroach movement' clashes with police in New Delhi  Reuters
  5. India police use tear gas to stop march on Parliament by Cockroach movement supporters  AP News
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We received no alert, say leaders of First Nations communities razed by Canadian wildfires

Chiefs in Ontario say they were left to self-evacuate before homes burned to ground, after being told there was no imminent threat

Fast-moving wildfires have burned two First Nations communities in Canada to the ground, as members said they were left to self-evacuate without government help or emergency alerts.

Thirteen communities in Ontario province have been ordered to evacuate because of wildfires, most of them First Nations. The Ontario premier, Doug Ford, told reporters on Monday that close to 2,000 people had been evacuated so far to cities including Toronto and Niagara Falls.

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Greek-American tourists stabbed in rare attack near the Acropolis – CNN

  1. Greek-American tourists stabbed in rare attack near the Acropolis  CNN
  2. Man stabs tourists near the Acropolis in Athens, Greece  ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos
  3. Family Announces Death of Soccer Legend at 75  The Daily Beast
  4. 2 U.S. Tourists Stabbed in Knife Attack Near Site of Ancient Acropolis in Greece  People.com
  5. Man Attacks Two Tourists With Knife Near Ancient Acropolis Site in Greece  U.S. News & World Report
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‘No electricity, no water, no fuel’: Ukrainian drone strikes bring darkness to Crimea’s summer

Interviews with residents of Russian-held region point to frustration with Moscow as Ukrainian campaign to isolate it takes toll on daily life

First, the guests stopped coming. As Ukrainian drones and missiles pounded Crimea throughout the spring and into the summer, Russian tourists began cancelling their bookings at the small guesthouse Marina runs in Yevpatoria, a resort town on the peninsula’s Black Sea coast.

Then petrol became scarce, making it harder to stock the business with food and other essentials. Now, electricity and running water are cut off for much of the day, just as the summer heat sets in.

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Amid U.S.-Iran war, Houthi rebels threaten to blockade another key strait – NPR

  1. Amid U.S.-Iran war, Houthi rebels threaten to blockade another key strait  NPR
  2. Houthis in Yemen Edge Closer to Entering U.S.-Iran War  The New York Times
  3. Chinese Oil Tanker U-Turns in Red Sea After Houthi Attack Threat  Bloomberg.com
  4. Yemen’s Houthis declare naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, widening threat to global oil supplies  NBC News
  5. Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis say they will block Saudi shipping at Red Sea gateway  AP News
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