NatWest investors given £1.5bn weeks after full privatisation
Profits rise 4.4% at lender, which plans to distribute interim dividend of 9.5p a share on top of fresh £750m buyback
NatWest will give a further £1.5bn to shareholders only weeks after the UK government sold the final part of its stake in the once bailed-out bank.
The high street lender on Friday announced plans to distribute an interim dividend of 9.5p a share, worth a collective £768m, on top of a fresh £750m share buyback in the second half of the year.
Continue reading...‘City of singles’: cosmopolitan prewar Paris’s ‘crazy years’ brought to life
Database of 8m handwritten census entries paints portrait of city that was hub for intellectuals, artists and young, single people
In 1926, James Joyce was working on his novel Finnegans Wake while living in a spacious apartment in the 7th arrondissement of Paris with his partner, Nora Barnacle, and their two adult children, Giorgio and Lucia.
Joyce’s neighbours in the elegant stone building at 2 Square de Robiac included a Syrian family whose three children had an English nanny called Jessie, Russian émigrés, an Egyptian industrialist, and the US writers William and Elizabeth Placida Mahl.
Continue reading...NSW police actions should be examined in Tammy Shipley’s death in custody, lawyer argues
Court asked to consider whether the coroner has jurisdiction to examine Shipley’s arrest
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The actions of New South Wales police during the arrest of an Indigenous woman who later died in custody should be examined, given officers did not identify her “acute mental illness”, a court has heard.
Tammy Shipley died in prison while being held on remand at Silverwater women’s correctional centre in December 2022.
Continue reading...4 things to know about Gaza right now amid warnings of ‘mass starvation’ risk – NPR
- 4 things to know about Gaza right now amid warnings of 'mass starvation' risk NPR
- Almost a third of people in Gaza not eating for days, UN food programme warns BBC
- Israel says hundreds of truckloads of aid are waiting to enter Gaza. Why can't the UN bring them in? The Washington Post
- Gazans Are Dying of Starvation The New York Times
- Gaza's hunger crisis is having 'catastrophic' outcomes for mothers and babies NBC News
Australian actor Rebel Wilson sued by production company behind her own film
UK-based AI Film has accused the actor of deliberately sabotaging The Deb’s release by making alleged threats and defamatory claims
The legal drama surrounding The Deb, Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut, has made landfall in Australia, with one of the production companies behind the venture filing a lawsuit against Wilson in the New South Wales supreme court this week.
UK-based AI Film, represented by Australian legal firm Giles George and high-profile barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC, accused the Pitch Perfect Australian actor of deliberately sabotaging the film’s release, alleging threats and defamatory claims had caused the production company financial and reputational damage.
Continue reading...Warm weather and live events give lift to retail sales in Great Britain
Shoppers flock to stores in June for food, drink and merchandise, and also go on short breaks
Sunny summer weather and a packed schedule of events including Wimbledon, concerts by Oasis and Beyoncé, and international cricket and football sent shoppers flocking to retailers and supermarkets last month.
Retail sales volumes in Great Britain rose by 0.9% in June, bouncing back from a sharp fall in May, although slightly below analyst consensus forecasts of a 1.2% month-on-month increase.
Continue reading...Georges Abdallah: Pro-Palestinian convict freed after 40 years – BBC
- Georges Abdallah: Pro-Palestinian convict freed after 40 years BBC
- Militant Georges Abdallah arrives in Lebanon after more than 40 years in French detention AP News
- Lebanese terrorist convicted of killing Israeli diplomat to be freed Friday in France The Times of Israel
- Pro-Palestinian Lebanese fighter freed from France welcomed home in Beirut Al Jazeera
- Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is free after 40 years in French prison: 'I return to Lebanon as an activist' Le Monde.fr
Pro-Palestinian convict freed by France after 41 years
Georges Abdallah will immediately be expelled to his native Lebanon after his release early on Friday.
Australia Says Gaza Situation Beyond ‘Worst Fears’ as Pressure Mounts on Israel – The New York Times
- Australia Says Gaza Situation Beyond ‘Worst Fears’ as Pressure Mounts on Israel The New York Times
- Gaza situation beyond ‘worst fears,’ Australia says amid mass starvation The Hill
- Albanese says Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza ‘cannot be defended or ignored’ in strongest condemnation yet The Guardian
- PM says Gaza situation 'beyond the world's worst fears' Australian Broadcasting Corporation
- Anthony Albanese slams Israeli government for aid in Gaza The Jerusalem Post
‘We’re terribly sorry’: South Park creators respond with humour to White House anger over naked Donald Trump
Speaking at Comic-Con on Thursday, Trey Parker and Matt Stone revealed they spent days negotiating with producers to show the US president’s genitals
South Park co-creator Trey Parker had the briefest of responses on Thursday to anger from the White House over the latest season premiere, which showed a naked Donald Trump in bed with Satan.
“We’re terribly sorry,” Parker said, followed by a long, deadpan-comic stare.
Continue reading...Russia launches satellite for Iran toward orbit alongside 2 space weather probes (photos) – Space
- Russia launches satellite for Iran toward orbit alongside 2 space weather probes (photos) Space
- Russian rocket launches Iran satellite into space: Iranian media Al Jazeera
- Russia launches Iranian communications satellite into orbit The Times of Israel
- Iranian satellite to launch aboard Russian Soyuz rocket - IRGC media ایران اینترنشنال
- Russia Blasts New Iran Satellite Into Space Newsweek
Watch: Man dons bear costume in Japanese Police animal attack drill
Authorities and local hunters have practiced their response to potential bear attacks in a simulated drill.
Thailand-Cambodia border dispute: 130,000 Thai civilians evacuated amid second day of clashes
Thailand PM warns cross-border clashes ‘could develop into war’ as fighting spreads to 12 locations
Thailand has evacuated more than 130,000 people along the Cambodian border, it said on Friday, as the country’s leader warned cross-border clashes could develop into war.
Clashes that began on Thursday resumed early on Friday, the Thai military reported, as the two countries fought in their bloodiest military clashes in over a decade.
Fighting had taken place in 12 locations along the disputed border, a Thai military official – an expansion of the conflict that erupted a day earlier.
“This present incident of aggression is escalating and could develop to the stage of war,” Thailand’s acting prime minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters in Bangkok. “However, right now we are still at altercation level, battling with heavy weapons. What we have done so far are to protect our land and sovereignty of our nation.”
‘Fantastic progress’ in trade deal talks with US – India minister
Federal minister Piyush Goyal seems optimistic about India finalising a trade deal with US before the 1 August deadline.
Australian politician Gareth Ward found guilty of rape
Ward, a sitting member of New South Wales parliament, assaulted two young men, a jury found.
Trump takes time out to open Scottish golf course
His private visit is exceptional as US presidents rarely promote their personal interests so publicly while in office.
Albanese says Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza ‘cannot be defended or ignored’ in strongest condemnation yet
The prime minister did not, however, follow French president Emmanuel Macron’s lead with a commitment to recognise a Palestinian state
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Anthony Albanese has condemned Israel for “the killing of civilians, including children” seeking aid, but stopped short of saying Australia would recognise a Palestinian state, as France has committed to doing.
In the Australian government’s strongest condemnation of Israel yet, the prime minister said the killings and denial of aid “cannot be defended or ignored”.
Continue reading...For One Man, It Didn’t Take Much to Make an Embassy in India – The New York Times
- For One Man, It Didn’t Take Much to Make an Embassy in India The New York Times
- Indian police arrest man accused of running fake embassy The Guardian
- Umugabo wo mu Buhinde yafashwe nyuma y'imyaka akora nka 'ambasaderi' w'ibihugu bitabaho kw'isi BBC
- How ‘His Excellency HV Jain’ managed to stay undetected running fake embassies from so close to Delhi Tribune India
- Indian man caught running fake embassy with elaborate setup DW
Bill Clinton reportedly sent Jeffrey Epstein note for birthday album
Wall Street Journal reports ex-president’s letter, while New York Times reports Trump called Epstein ‘the greatest’
Donald Trump apparently isn’t the only president that sent a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein. “The biggest name in the album” was Bill Clinton, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The ex-president’s letter appeared alongside nearly 50 others, including other prominent celebrities and executives.
Last week, the Journal reported that Trump had authored a “bawdy” letter to Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 after he was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges. The letter was included in an album Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell compiled on the occasion of his 50th birthday in 2003. Trump has sued Rupert Murdoch, two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters and the newspaper’s publisher Dow Jones for libel and slander over the reporting.
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