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The GuardianScandalLondon

Labour MPs say Starmer’s days as PM are numbered amid fury over Mandelson

MPs say release of papers on Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador could trigger leadership challengeLabour MPs have warned that Keir Starmer’s days as prime minister are numbered after a day of fury over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite his friendship with Jeffery Epstein.The government was on the brink of a defeat in the Commons until a mid-debate amendment brokered by Meg Hillier and Angela Rayner to force the release of documents about Mandelson’s appointment and the depth of his relationship with the convicted child sex offender.

Last updated 0h ago
The GuardianScandalLondon

Researcher paid people for testimony about Daily Mail, high court told

Former phone hacker Graham Johnson denies claims, saying payments were part of effort to draw attention to unlawful behaviour by mediaA researcher investigating lawbreaking by the media paid private investigators and ex-journalists for their testimony about alleged unlawful activity at the publisher of the Daily Mail, the high court has heard., a former phone hacker who later turned to researching unlawful activity in the press, confirmed he had made payments to six people who all feature in the case against Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL).

Last updated 4h ago
The GuardianScandalLondon

The Guardian view on Epstein, power and accountability: full transparency is the least survivors deserve | Editorial

As the wheels of justice begin to turn in Britain, a spotlight should also shine on the financier’s wealthy enablers in the US“The more Epstein documents get released, the more we see how he had so many powerful friends, and that’s ultimately what helped him,” the US lawyer Lisa Bloom in an interview with the Guardian this week. As Ms Bloom, who represents 11 of Jeffrey Epstein’s dogged and brave victims, drily notes: “That’s not the way the justice system is supposed to work.”From the outset, the Epstein affair has offered a textbook example of the ability of the influential and well-connected to scrutiny and intimidate those who would exert it. A ruthless pursuit of transparency, both institutional and personal, is the only way to combat such tactics and hold power to account. In the extraordinary days following the of further Epstein files last week, the wheels of justice in Britain are belatedly beginning to turn on that basis.

Last updated 2h ago
The GuardianScandalUSA

Texas man sues California doctor for allegedly sending abortion pills to state

Suit is the first under new law allowing residents to sue providers protected in their states under ‘shield laws’A physician based in California has become the first medical provider sued under a recently enacted Texas statute that empowers private individuals to file civil lawsuits against providers who mail abortion medication into the state.The case was brought by Jerry Rodriguez, who claims that Remy Coeytaux, a doctor practicing in the San Francisco Bay Area, violated a Texas law that allows abortion providers to face penalties of at least $100,000 if they mail pills into Texas. The Coeytaux mailed abortion medication to end Rodriguez’s girlfriend’s pregnancies twice, once in 2024 and again in early 2025.

Last updated 3h ago
The GuardianHumanityNigeria

Gunmen kill more than 160 people in attacks on two west Nigeria villages

Local politician says armed men rounded up residents, bound their hands behind their backs and shot themMore than 160 people have been killed in two villages in western Nigeria in the country’s deadliest armed assaults this year, as communities reel from repeated and widespread acts of violence perpetrated by jihadists and other armed groups.The death toll from Tuesday’s attacks in Woro and Nuku in Kwara state stood at 162 on Wednesday afternoon, according to Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament representing the area.

Last updated 3h ago
The GuardianCrime & SafetyUSA

Woody Allen’s wife, Soon-Yi Previn, told Epstein that #MeToo movement ‘went too far’

She also smeared teen victim of former congressman Anthony Weiner as ‘despicable and disgusting’ , files show Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of the film director Woody Allen , sent emails to Jeffrey Epstein telling the convicted sex offender that the #MeToo justice movement “has gone too far” – and smearing an underage girl at the center of a sexting case as “despicable and disgusting” rather than the former US congressman who went to prison for illicitly messaging the minor, according to recently released government files. At one point, Previn also wrote about how her stepbrother Ronan Farrow received more “prestige … than he deserves” in a New York Times article published months after his journalism about Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul and now-convicted sex offender, won a share of a Pulitzer prize and kicked off the #MeToo movement. Continue reading...

Last updated 10h ago
The GuardianLiteratureLondon

‘The smart, the rich, the powerful’: Epstein associated with Silicon Valley elite years after his release from prison

Billionaires and intellectuals attended events with the disgraced financier years after he served time for sex offense, files reveal Newly released emails and travel itineraries appear to show that for years after Jeffrey Epstein served time for procuring underage girls for prostitution, he continued to attend exclusive dinners alongside Silicon Valley ’s most famous billionaires. The emails, part of a trove released by the Department of Justice on Friday, show that as late as 2018, Epstein was invited to or attended dinners alongside the likes of Elon Musk , Jeff Bezos, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Google vice-president and later Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Continue reading...

Last updated 21h ago
The GuardianDiplomacy

US and Iran talks at risk of collapse after US rejects move to Oman

Talks were scheduled in Turkey with Arab states present, but Iran requests move amid attempts to limit agenda Talks between the US and Iran scheduled for Friday appear to be collapsing after the US rejected Iran’s request to move them from Turkey to Oman without the presence of a group of Arab states.Iran has also vowed that the talks will be confined to its nuclear programme, while other issues the US would like to discuss, such as the range of Tehran’s ballistic missile programme, will be permanently excluded.

Last updated 1h ago
The GuardianHumanityUSA

Pro-gun groups quickly rallied for Alex Pretti. Why didn’t they do the same for a Black gun owner?

Philando Castile, a lawful gun owner, was shot and killed by a police officer in 2016 – gun rights groups were largely silent The killing of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis has sparked a thorny conversation among gun rights groups and Trump administration officials about the second amendment and the right to carry concealed firearms at protests and demonstrations. Among the questions is which cases the movement rallies behind, and behind which it doesn’t. In the hours and days after Pretti’s killing, dozens of local national and local gun rights groups lambasted federal officials like Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Gregory Bovino, a senior border patrol official, who baselessly claimed that Pretti’s carrying of a handgun proved that he planned to harm and kill border patrol agents. Prominent gun rights organizations, including Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the National Rifle Association (NRA), called for an independent investigation into the shooting and defended Pretti’s right to carry a gun. Continue reading...

Last updated 7h ago
The GuardianElectionsUSA

What is happening in Fulton county is a warning to America | Jamil Smith

The FBI raid in Georgia is not an aberration. It fits a broader playbook, with troubling historic precedentsWhat in the hell were FBI agents doing in , last week? They surely weren’t investigating a crime. Nor were they serving the public.Justifying Donald Trump’s “big lie” about winning the 2020 election may seem like his own – but like his , he is weaponizing it, damage be damned. Not even his subsequent election victory has quieted Trump’s appetite for more power, earned or otherwise.Jamil Smith is a Guardian US columnist

Last updated 0h ago
The GuardianWar & ConflictLondon

Not delivering any Aukus nuclear submarines to Australia explored as option in US congressional report

Report offers alternative of the US navy retaining boats and operating them out of Australian basesGet our , or A new United States congressional report openly contemplates not selling any nuclear submarines to Australia – as promised under the Aukus agreement – because America wants to retain control of the submarines for a potential conflict with China over Taiwan.The , Congress’s policy research arm, posits an alternative “military division of labour” under which the submarines earmarked for sale to Australia are instead retained under US command to be sailed out of Australian bases.

Last updated 5h ago
The GuardianImmigrationUSA

Tennessee to test Stephen Miller’s plan of enlisting states for immigration enforcement

Bills mandate ICE cooperation, school status checks and criminalize information release, testing constitutional lines The power to enforce immigration law rests with the federal government. But Trump adviser, Stephen Miller, has a vision for states working in coordination with federal immigration officials, and he’s attempting to test it out in Tennessee . Earlier this month, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that Miller had been meeting in Washington DC with Tennessee speaker of the house, Cameron Sexton, to craft model legislation for states around the country. Continue reading...

Last updated 8h ago
DawnHealth AlertsPakistan

Rising threat in Balochistan

THE separatist militancy, which has gripped Balochistan for the past two decades, now seems to have escalated into a full-blown insurgency. Last week, hundreds of armed terrorists launched simultaneous attacks reportedly in 12 locations, including the provincial capital Quetta. They stormed security installations, set government buildings on fire and looted banks. Highly trained terrorists engaged the security forces in gun battles for hours, revealing their capacity to challenge the state.

Last updated 16h ago
The GuardianSustainability

Drax insiders privately raised concerns over its sustainability claims, court papers show

Company publicly denied allegations that primary forests were being cut down to fuel UK’s biggest power plantSenior executives at Drax raised concerns internally about the validity of the energy company’s sustainability claims while it publicly denied allegations that it was cutting down environmentally important forests for fuel, court documents have revealed.Britain’s biggest power plant assured ministers and civil servants of the company’s green credentials as it scrambled to defend itself against claims in a BBC Panorama documentary that it had burned wood sourced from “old-growth” forests in Canada.

Last updated 5h ago
The GuardianAILondon

Condemnation of Elon Musk’s AI chatbot reached ‘tipping point’ after French raid, Australia’s eSafety chief says

A number of countries including Australia are investigating X over Grok-produced sexualised deepfakesGet our , or The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, says global regulatory focus on Elon Musk’s X has reached a “tipping point” after a raid of the company’s offices in France this week.The raid on Tuesday that included alleged offences of complicity in the possession and organised distribution of child abuse images, violation of image rights through sexualised deepfakes, and denial of crimes against humanity.

Last updated 6h ago
The GuardianHumanityUSA

I knew Trump would target Minnesota. I didn’t expect this level of violence | Rachel Leingang

I’m reporting on a political retribution campaign, disguised as immigration enforcement, in the community where I live I knew they would come here. If you’re a president hell-bent on retreading 2020 and retaliating against your enemies, the midwestern state that started the George Floyd protests, with a generous social safety net and diverse population, governed by a vice-presidential candidate you vehemently hate, is a certain target. Continue reading...

Last updated 10h ago