‘Gut punch’: top shark expert quits Queensland advisory panel after LNP expands cull program

Exclusive: Colin Simpfendorfer’s resignation from working group comes as conservationists lash expansion of lethal program they say ‘does nothing to improve beach safety’

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One of Australia’s leading shark researchers has resigned from his position of almost eight years advising the Queensland shark control program, as members of that scientific working group say they were “shocked” and sidelined by the state government’s decision to expand the lethal control of sharks.

Announcing an $88m shark management plan overhaul which would see shark nets and baited drum lines designed to kill target shark species rolled out at more beaches, and existing drum lines used more intensely, the primary industries minister, Tony Perrett, claimed this week that the Liberal National party’s strategy was backed by research.

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Hamas makes hostage pledge but demands changes to US Gaza ceasefire plan

The response is seen as neither an explicit rejection nor clear acceptance of the proposal, but US envoy Steve Witkoff has branded it "unacceptable".

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Bee-ware: truck carrying 250m honeybees overturns by US-Canada border

Washington state officials swarmed to scene to find 70,000lbs of hives and bees abuzz in a sticky situation

Officials near the US border were abuzz after being relentlessly attacked on Friday morning by a swarm of fugitives: honeybees had escaped after a truck carrying hives overturned near the Canadian border. About 250 million honeybees flew free of the truck around 4am a few miles south of Canada.

The truck that was transporting around 70,000lbs of hives and honeybees rolled over on a road in north-western Washington state. Local sheriff deputies and bee experts swarmed to the scene, where they removed the box hives to help recover and rescue as many bees as possible. The driver of the truck was not injured.

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Biden speaks about cancer diagnosis and urges Americans to defend democracy

Ex-president gave speech to commemorate fallen service members and said he had ‘no regrets’ after election loss

• US politics live – latest updates

Joe Biden on Friday spoke out in public for the first time since being diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer earlier this month to say he was optimistic about his prognosis and also to urge Americans to defend US democracy.

“All the folks are very optimistic … The expectation is we are going to be able to beat this,” he said of the cancer, at an event in Delaware.

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Macron warns the West could lose credibility over Ukraine and Gaza wars

The French president spoke at the Shangri-la Dialogue, a high-level Asia defence summit in Singapore.

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Trump violating right to life with anti-environment orders, youth lawsuit says

Twenty-two plaintiffs between ages seven and 25 allege government is engaging in unlawful executive overreach

Twenty-two young Americans have filed a new lawsuit against the Trump administration over its anti-environment executive orders. By intentionally boosting oil and gas production and stymying carbon-free energy, federal officials are violating their constitutional rights to life and liberty, alleges the lawsuit, filed on Thursday.

The federal government is engaging in unlawful executive overreach by breaching congressional mandates to protect ecosystems and public health, argue the plaintiffs, who are between the ages of seven and 25 and hail from the heavily climate-impacted states of Montana, Hawaii, Oregon, California and Florida. They also say officials’ emissions-increasing and science-suppressing orders have violated the state-created danger doctrine, a legal principle meant to prevent government actors from inflicting injury upon their citizens.

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Judge blocks Trump's effort to restrict foreign students at Harvard - for now

The case pits the government's power over student visas against Harvard's free speech rights

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Kings of Leon cancel UK and European shows after singer’s ‘freak accident’

Caleb Followill says shattered heel needed ‘significant emergency surgery’, which would stop him performing

The Kings of Leon frontman, Caleb Followill, has announced that the band have cancelled their UK and European shows this summer after he injured his foot in a “freak accident”.

The singer, who is part of the US rock group with his brothers Nathan and Jared Followill and cousin Matthew Followill, was scheduled to perform at Blackweir Fields, Cardiff and Lancashire’s Lytham festival over the next two months.

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US will refuse visas to foreign officials who block Americans’ social media posts

Marco Rubio says he is acting against ‘flagrant censorship actions’ overseas against US tech firms

• US politics live – latest updates

• International students in the US: are you considering studying elsewhere?

The United States has said it will refuse visas to foreign officials who block Americans’ social media posts, as Donald Trump’s administration wages a new battle over free expression.

Marco Rubio – the secretary of state who has controversially rescinded visas for activists who criticize Israel and ramped up screening of foreign students’ social media – said on Wednesday he was acting against “flagrant censorship actions” overseas against US tech firms.

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Florida man bitten by alligator then fatally shot by deputies after ‘rampage’, sheriff says

Man believed to be high on methamphetamine swam in alligator-infested waters before charging at officers, according to the sheriff

A Florida man was shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies after he was bitten by an alligator during an early morning dip in a lake, then threatened the officers with garden shears as he attempted to enter their patrol vehicle, the sheriff said.

Photos posted to social media by deputies in Polk county showed the aftermath of Monday’s fatal, exceptionally chaotic events in Lakeland that ended with Timothy Schulz, 42, dead in what Grady Judd, the sheriff, called a “rampage”.

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Russia's advance in Ukraine's north east may be bid to create 'buffer zone'

The advance may be linked to Moscow's attempts to create "buffer zones" along the border, Ukrainian regional authorities say.

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Former Harvard president urges people to ‘speak out’ against threats to US democracy

New York Times published a Memorial Day essay by Drew Gilpin Faust as university spars with Trump administration

A recent former president of Harvard University urged people to “speak out” in defense of “foundational threats” to values such as freedom, autonomy and democracy in the US, as those whose deaths for such causes in war were being honored on Memorial Day.

Drew Gilpin Faust, the first female president of Harvard, also warned on Monday of US constitutional checks and the rule of law being “at risk” under the current administration, even as Donald Trump issued a fresh threat against the elite university as it seeks to repel his assaults on its independence and funding.

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Far-right marchers attack Palestinians as Israel marks taking of Jerusalem

Israeli opposition leaders condemned attacks on Palestinians as "racist" and a disgrace to Judaism.

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Iran summons French envoy over 'insulting' Cannes remarks

Iranian officials say the remarks are “blatant interference” in the country’s internal affairs.

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Irish pro-Palestine activists embrace ‘Paddystinian’ term as badge of honour

Believed to have originated as an insult by Israel supporters, neologism is now used to campaign against war in Gaza

The term was coined to disparage Ireland’s solidarity with Palestine but has been adopted as a badge of honour that now adorns T-shirts, hoodies, pins and social media bios: welcome to Paddystine, home of the Paddystinians.

Irish activists have embraced the neologism as a galvanising term to campaign against Israel’s war in Gaza and to pressure the Irish government to do more to end the conflict.

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Watch: Suspected sabotage causes Cannes power cut 'meltdown'

The prestigious film festival was disrupted, about 160,000 homes were without power and businesses were left without power.

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Co-driver dies after crash during Jim Clark rally in Scotland

Dai Roberts, 39, was pronounced dead at the scene near Duns in the Scottish Borders

A co-driver taking part in the Jim Clark rally in Scotland has died after a crash on Saturday morning.

Dai Roberts, 39, was pronounced dead at the scene near Duns in the Scottish Borders.

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Robbery gang guilty of Kim Kardashian heist in Paris

The robbers have been given jail time for stealing millions of dollars' worth of jewellery belonging to the US celebrity.

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British students at Harvard report ‘growing anxiety’ over US government attacks

Trump administration’s effort to ban foreign enrolment could force students to disrupt their studies and careers

British and international students at Harvard report “growing anxiety” over their fate, as the Trump administration’s latest attack on the university could force them to disrupt their studies and careers.

On Thursday, the administration said it would revoke Harvard University’s eligibility to enrol international students, which was later temporarily frozen by a US federal judge on Friday.

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As Israel faces diplomatic 'tsunami', Trump is staying quiet

This has been a tumultuous week for the Jewish state, the BBC's Paul Adams writes.

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RFK’s health report omits key facts in painting dark vision for US children

Maha report ignores leading causes of death for children, firearms and crashes, and focuses on lifestyle and vaccines

A new report led by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr lays out a dark vision of American children’s health and calls for agencies to examine vaccines, ultra-processed foods, environmental chemicals, lack of exercise and “overmedicalization”.

Kennedy has made combatting the chronic disease “epidemic” a cornerstone of his vision for the US, even as he has ignored common causes of chronic conditions, such as smoking and alcohol use.

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Trump administration ends Harvard's ability to enrol international students

The move escalates the administration's row with America's oldest university over hiring, admissions and teaching practices.

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Denmark to raise retirement age to highest in Europe

From 2040, Danish people born after 31 December 1970 will be eligible to retire at 70 years old.

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Labour to review giving more pensioners winter fuel payments

Threshold for top-up could be raised, opening door to government revisiting other unpopular benefits cuts

Keir Starmer has announced a partial U-turn that would make more pensioners eligible for winter fuel payments, as government figures opened the door for more tweaks to controversial policies.

After a major backlash against one of the most unpopular measures announced by the Labour government, the prime minister indicated he would look again at the £11,500 threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the allowance.

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Drugs and guns found in raid on Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Miami home, court told

Homeland security agent Gerard Gannon testifies about federal raid on Miami Beach property in March last year

The federal trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs entered its eighth day of testimony in New York on Wednesday, with a homeland security agent resuming testimony about the federal raid of Combs’s Miami property last year.

Combs, 55, is facing charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He was arrested in September and has pleaded not guilty.

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Watch: Fatal storms flood the south of France

At least three people have died in the flooding which swept across southern France.

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EU plans €2 fee on small parcels in hit to Shein and Temu

The tax will affect billions of packages sent to people's homes which mainly come from China at the moment.

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Microsoft employee interrupts CEO’s keynote with pro-Palestinian protest

Protester is engineer who worked on Azure software, which enabled Israeli surveillance of Palestinians

A Microsoft employee disrupted a keynote speech by the company’s chief executive with a pro-Palestinian protest at the company’s annual developer conference on Monday.

Joe Lopez, a Microsoft firmware engineer who worked on parts of the company’s cloud-computing platform, Azure, was escorted out the Build conference by security nearly immediately after he confronted Satya Nadella.

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At least £357m in carer’s allowance paid out in error over past six years, charity finds

Exclusive: overpayments because of official failures led to debt and misery for hundreds of thousands of people

At least £357m in carer’s allowance benefit was paid out in error over the past six years because of official failures, resulting in debt and misery being inflicted on tens of thousands of people.

The bulk of the figure relates to minor breaches of earnings rules by carers that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was alerted to but did not check, allowing carers to run up huge overpayments over months and years.

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Huge challenges await new president of divided Romania

"Fear managed to defeat fury" is how one analyst interpreted liberal Nicusor Dan beating hard-right George Simion to the presidency.

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Trump’s acceptance of Qatar jet gift is ‘definition of corruption’, senator says

Chris Murphy says Trump strategically visited Gulf states ‘willing to pay him off’ as backlash rises against luxury offer

Donald Trump’s acceptance of a $400m Boeing jet from Qatar is the “definition of corruption”, a leading Democrat said on Sunday, as several senior Republicans joined in a bipartisan fusillade of criticism and concern over the luxury gift.

Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator for Connecticut, condemned the “flying grift” on NBC’s Meet the Press as he assailed the president’s trip to several Gulf states this week that included a stop in Qatar.

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US officials investigating fatal Mexican Navy ship crash

Authorities are examining the site in New York to determine how the collision, which killed two, occurred.

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Trump to talk to Putin on Monday about Ukraine ceasefire proposal and trade

In social media posts, president also slammed Walmart for price increases and spread anti-Clinton conspiracy theories

Donald Trump has said that he will speak to both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an effort to stop what he called the “bloodbath” war in Ukraine, in a barrage of new social media posts that included baseless conspiracy theories and a demand that Walmart not raise prices for customers because of tariffs he has imposed.

Trump, posting on his Truth Social account on Saturday, wrote that he will speak to Putin on Monday morning. “THE SUBJECTS OF THE CALL WILL BE, STOPPING THE ‘BLOODBATH’ THAT IS KILLING, ON AVERAGE, MORE THAN 5000 RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS A WEEK, AND TRADE,” Trump wrote, in his customary all-capitalized prose.

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Five killed after helicopters collide in Finland

Police have not confirmed the number of deaths but said there were five people on board in total.

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House Republicans block Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ in major setback

Rightwing lawmakers say president’s bill – centered on tax cuts and funding deportations – doesn’t make enough cuts

Rightwing lawmakers derailed Donald Trump’s signature legislation in the House of Representatives on Friday, preventing its passage through a key committee and throwing into question whether Republicans can coalesce around the massive bill.

The party has spent weeks negotiating a measure dubbed the “one big, beautiful bill” that would extend tax cuts enacted during Trump’s first term, fund mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, and temporarily make good on his campaign promise to end the taxation of tips and overtime. To offset its costs, Republicans have proposed cuts to the federal safety net, including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

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Five House Republicans stall Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax bill

Lawmakers from the president's own party joined all Democrats to reject a key domestic bill, demanding deeper budget cuts.

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Shock in Sweden at death of diplomat questioned for spying

The man, described as a high-ranking diplomat, was arrested on Sunday and released on Wednesday.

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Republican push to cut green tax credits would raise utility bills, new data shows

Study shows rollback of credits would increase energy expenses for American of both red and blue districts

As House Republicans propose taking a sledgehammer to the green tax credits in Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, new data shows the loss of those incentives could lower some Americans’ household income by more than $1,000 a year due to increased utility bills and job losses.

Though Donald Trump has called climate spending a “waste” of money, the data – published by the industry group Clean Energy Buyers Association (Ceba) on Thursday – provides evidence that rescinding them would actually increase expenses for ordinary Americans in red and blue districts alike.

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US says Trump and Putin needed for breakthrough in Ukraine peace talks

Marco Rubio says he does not have high expectations for Ukraine-Russia peace talks due to be held in Turkey.

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Menendez brothers ‘huge step’ closer to freedom as judge reduces sentences

Brothers, convicted of parents’ 1989 murders, resentenced to 50 years to life, making them immediately parole eligible

After months of delays and decades behind bars, Erik and Lyle Menendez now have a long-awaited chance at freedom after a judge reduced their sentences for the 1989 killings of their parents.

Their family and extensive network of supporters celebrated on Tuesday when Judge Michael Jesic resentenced the brothers from life in prison without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life. The judge’s decision means they are immediately eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law because of their young ages at the time of the murders.

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Trump's meeting with Sharaa, unthinkable just months ago, boosts Syrians' hopes

Syria's interim leader met the US president in Riyadh after he announced he would lift sanctions on Syria.

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Robert Benton, Oscar-winning director of Kramer vs Kramer, dies aged 92

The writer and director, whose credits also include Bonnie and Clyde, Superman and Places in the Heart, died at his New York City home

Oscar-winning writer and director Robert Benton has died at the age of 92.

He won his two Academy awards for divorce drama Kramer vs Kramer. His longtime assistant and manager confirmed his death to the New York Times.

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Menendez brothers’ resentencing hearing begins after months of delays

LA judge to decide whether Erik and Lyle Menendez should get chance at freedom after serving 30 years for murder

Erik and Lyle Menendez returned to court on Tuesday for a long-awaited hearing in which a Los Angeles judge will decide whether the brothers should get a chance at freedom after serving nearly three decades in prison for the double murder of their parents in 1989.

The resentencing hearing, which is moving ahead after months of delays, is expected to last two days. If Judge Michael Jesic shortens the brothers’ sentences, they would still need approval from the state’s parole board to be released.

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Starmer defends plans to curb net migration after backlash from MPs

Prime minister’s ‘island of strangers’ speech was likened to rhetoric of Enoch Powell

Keir Starmer has defended his plans to curb net migration after an angry backlash from MPs, businesses and industry to a speech in which he said the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” without tough new policies.

The rhetoric was likened by some critics to the language of Enoch Powell, and the prime minister was accused of pandering to the populist right by insisting he intended to “take back control of our borders” and end a “squalid chapter” of rising inward migration.

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Hamas to release US-Israeli hostage as part of efforts to reach Gaza ceasefire

The release will come ahead of President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East on Tuesday.

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Trump officials ‘created confrontation’ that led to arrest of Newark mayor

Democratic Congress members who visited detention center with mayor say Ice officials ‘created the chaos’

Trump administration homeland security officials were responsible for starting the confrontation on Friday at a New Jersey immigration jail that led to the arrest of Newark’s mayor as well as threats to detain three members of Congress, the representatives said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

The Democratic Congress members Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver and Rob Menendez – all of New Jersey – visited the controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center known as Delaney Hall on Friday to inspect the facility. As they waited to enter Delaney Hall, Newark’s mayor Ras Baraka arrived – and as he left the property, he was arrested outside by Ice officials accusing him of trespassing, leading to a commotion at the entrance of the jail.

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Trump to receive luxury jet for Air Force One from Qatar

The aircraft is intended for use as a presidential plane, which will then be donated to Trump's library.

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‘We share a history and the future’: diaspora communities in UK decry Kashmir conflict

At a demonstration in Westminster, people from both sides of India-Pakistan divide call for more than mere ceasefire

People around the world held their breath this week as India and Pakistan appeared to edge closer and closer towards war.

For diaspora communities with family in the region, especially in Kashmir and along the border between the two countries, recent days in particular have been filled with fear and anxiety.

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Google agrees to pay Texas $1.375bn over data-privacy claims

State attorney general said company secretly tracked users’ movements, searches, voiceprints and facial geometry

Google has agreed to pay $1.375bn in a settlement in principle reached with the state of Texas over allegations the company violated users’ data privacy, the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, said on Friday.

The agreement settles two lawsuits that covered three products for allegedly violating Texas consumer protection laws.

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US considers special status for Greenland amid Trump push for control

Officials float idea of compact of free association (Cofa), used by US to keep close ties with Pacific Island nations

US officials are discussing a plan to pull Greenland into America’s sphere of influence using a type of agreement that the United States has used to keep close ties with several Pacific Island nations, according to two US officials and another person familiar with the discussions.

Under the plan being considered, the Trump administration would propose to Greenland’s leaders that the island enter into a so-called compact of free association, or Cofa, with the United States.

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US celebrates Leo XIV as first American pontiff: ‘Everything dope, including the pope’

Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson hails home town cardinal as Donald Trump and others offer congratulations

• New pope chosen: latest updates

Americans are celebrating and speaking out after US cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who will be known as Pope Leo XIV, was announced as the next pope.

“Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope. It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after the pope, who was born in Chicago, appeared on the Vatican balcony in Rome on Thursday.

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Turkey moves to silence jailed Erdogan rival by blocking account on X

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu has relied on social media to stay in touch with supporters from jail.

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Watch Pope Leo XIV's first public address - in full

Speaking from the Vatican balcony just after being unveiled as the new pontiff, he paid tribute to his predecessor and called for unity.

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US adults’ belief in impact of BLM protests consistently decreased since 2020 – study

Study also found 54% of adult Americans said the relationship between police and Black people was about the same since George Floyd’s death

This 25 May marks the fifth anniversary of the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota, whose murder sparked international protests against police brutality and racism.

A new study by the Pew Institute examines the beliefs of American adults regarding race and racial issues five years after Floyd’s death.

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Israeli strikes on Gaza restaurant and market kill 33, health ministry says

The restaurant in Gaza City's Rimal neighbourhood had been recently been operating a community kitchen.

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South African opposition politician hits out after failing to get UK visa

The UK Home Office was unable to process Julius Malema's application in time for his trip, the High Commission says.

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Man arrested after crashing car into front gate of Jennifer Aniston’s home

The Friends actor was at her Los Angeles residence when the man was arrested and taken into custody

A man was arrested after crashing a car into the front gate of Jennifer Aniston’s home in Los Angeles, California, authorities said on Tuesday.

Police told KABC-TV that the Friends star was home at the time of the crash.

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French hunter given suspended sentence for killing protected bear

The 81-year-old man said he had no choice but to shoot the animal after it attacked him during a hunt.

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EU plans to end Russian gas imports by end of 2027

The European Union vowed to end energy relations with Russia after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

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Cuts leave voters doubting Labour’s ability to deliver change

Many are giving up on the government after the winter fuel allowance cut, on which there may now be a partial U-turn

Keir Starmer rode a red wave into Downing Street on the back of a furious desire for change. Poll after poll said that top of the list for change was the cost of living, followed by public services.

But just nine months from taking power, many voters seem to be already giving up on the government’s ability to bring about that change. The speed of that rejection has been extraordinary.

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Ukraine claims strike in Russia's Kursk amid reports of fresh incursion

Kyiv says it struck a drone command centre in border village and insists forces remain inside Russian region

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Wisconsin woman missing for more than 60 years found ‘alive and well’

Audrey Backeberg who disappeared at age 20 in 1962 was found living out of the state, county sheriff’s office says

A Wisconsin woman missing for more than 60 years has been found “alive and well”, according to authorities.

In a press statement, Wisconsin’s Sauk county sheriff’s office said that 82-year old Audrey Backeberg, who initially disappeared in July 1962 at the age of 20, had been found living out of the state. The sheriff’s office did not disclose which state Backeberg was found in.

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Police disband pro-Palestinian camp at Swarthmore College and arrest nine activists

Some students were also temporarily suspended as other colleges respond with disciplinary action to protests

On the morning of 3 May, the Swarthmore borough police department disbanded a four-day pro-Palestinian encampment on Swarthmore College’s campus and arrested nine activists. One current and one former Swarthmore College student were among the arrested, while the rest were from outside of the college community, the college’s president, Valerie Smith, said in a statement.

“With rising concerns about safety and security on campus, a continued and growing presence of individuals unaffiliated with the college, warnings from outside law enforcement agencies and no signs that protestors were willing to engage in conversation that would bring the encampment to an end,” Smith said, “I felt we had no choice but to seek outside assistance from local law enforcement.”

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Fears of global instability drive Singapore voters into ruling party's arms

The People's Action Party won by a landslide in an election dominated by concerns over the cost of living and the economy.

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Driver arrested after four people injured in two collisions in Rochdale

A man is being detained on suspicion of attempted murder following two incidents about two miles apart

A driver has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after four people were injured in two separate collisions in Rochdale, police have said.

A woman was airlifted to hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries after she was hit by a car in Whitworth Road and three pedestrians, including a child, were injured in Woodgate Avenue, about two miles away.

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Trump proposes cutting $163bn in non-defense funds and boosting military

Education, health, climate and more on chopping block and 13% rise – to over $1tn to Pentagon – in ‘skinny budget’

Donald Trump is proposing huge cuts to social programmes like health and education while planning substantial spending increases on defence and the Department of Homeland Security, in a White House budget blueprint that starkly illustrates his preoccupation with projecting military strength and deterring migration.

Cuts of $163bn on discretionary non-defence spending would also see financial outlays slashed for environmental and renewable energy schemes, as well as for the FBI, an agency Trump has claimed was weaponised against him during Joe Biden’s presidency. Spending reductions are also being projected for the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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White House uses newly revealed allegations to support refusal to return Kilmar Ábrego García to US

Wife of man unlawfully sent to El Salvador filed protection petition in 2020 after domestic violence allegations

The legal team behind Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man unlawfully deported to El Salvador, is demanding that the Trump administration “bring him back and give him a full and fair trial” as the administration releases new domestic abuse allegations.

In a press release issued on Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cited allegations made by Ábrego García’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, that he abused her on several occasions in 2019 and 2020.

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Hundreds arrested in crackdown on May Day protests in Istanbul

More than 50,000 police officers are deployed to the Turkish capital and public transport is shut down.

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