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Top story The Guardian • May 21, 2026 (3 months ago)

Boys convicted of rape get non-custodial sentences as judge says they should not be criminalised unnecessarily

Boys physically overpowered and then filmed attacks on teenage victims in separate incidents in HampshireThree teenage boys convicted of knife-point rape and other serious sexual offences against two teenage girls in Hampshire have not been given custodial sentences because the judge said he “should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily”.The boys, who were aged between 13 and 14 at the ...

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The Guardian • 3 months ago

Single-sex toilets must exclude transgender people, says EHRC

Updated code of practice covering England, Wales and Scotland also relates to changing rooms and follows supreme court rulingWhat is the updated EHRC code of practice about and how does it apply?Single-sex toilets and changing rooms in England, Wales and Scotland must exclude transgender men and women, according to a new code of practice from the equalities watchdog.But the long-awaited guidance a...

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Single sex toilets must exclude transgender people, says EHRC

Updated code of practice covering England, Wales and Scotland also relates to changing rooms and follows supreme court rulingSingle sex toilets and changing rooms in England, Wales and Scotland must exclude transgender men and women, according to a new code of practice from the equalities watchdog.But the long-awaited guidance also says that businesses and service providers have to offer practical...

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Democrats belatedly publish 2024 election autopsy report: ‘It won’t meet your standards’

DNC chair Ken Martin apologizes for initial bid to block release of report on the party’s disastrous election defeatThe Democrats have belatedly published a postmortem on the party’s disastrous 2024 election defeat, after an initial decision to withhold the document triggered an angry backlash.Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), released the report – which fails to mentio...

The Guardian • 3 months ago

US Senate won’t take up ICE funding bill amid row over Trump’s ballroom, which president defends as ‘very good expenditure’ – live

President claims ‘I don’t need money for the ballroom’ as Senate Republicans move to ditch $1bn funding plan amid fears of alienating votersSign up for the Breaking News US emailSenate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and other Democrats spoke held a news conference, ahead of the vote-a-rama Thursday morning.“The Republican agenda is one big broken promise,”...

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US Senate refuses to push through ICE funding amid row over Trump’s ballroom

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Senate will not pass the $70bn legislation ahead of a 1 June deadline set by Trump ahead of the Memorial Day recessA bid to restore funding to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and border patrol has been derailed by rows over a $1bn proposal for security measures tied to Donald Trump’s White House ballroom and controversial plans to create a $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund.The US Senat...

Sadiq Khan sparks row with Met after blocking £50m AI deal with Palantir

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Exclusive: Scotland Yard criticises London mayor’s decision as disappointing and warns it could hit policing A £50m Metropolitan police deal with the controversial US tech company Palantir has been blocked by Sadiq Khan, sparking a bitter row between the London mayor and Scotland Yard.After the UK’s largest police force had agreed to use Palantir’s AI technology to automate intelligence analysis i...

Italian police stop party attended by Mick Jagger over music ban

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Music is banned on Wednesdays on island of Stromboli where Rolling Stones frontman was celebrating wrapping a filmPolice on an Italian island stopped a party attended by Mick Jagger – because music is banned on Wednesdays.The Rolling Stones frontman was on Stromboli, the volcanic island among Sicily’s Aeolian archipelago, for the production of Three Incestuous Sisters, a film by the Italian direct...

Senior civil servants to get bonuses for first time to reward ‘doers, not talkers’

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Senior staff will get 2.5% pay rise with bonuses for highest performers in plan to ‘rewire’ civil serviceSenior civil servants will get bonuses for exceptional performance for the first time under a new system that Darren Jones, the Cabinet Office minister, said would reward the “doers, not the talkers”.Jones, who is also chief secretary to the prime minister, said most civil servants would get a ...

US supreme court dismisses Alabama’s bid to execute intellectually disabled man

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Court throws out state’s challenge to judicial finding that inmate convicted of murder is ineligible for death penaltyThe US supreme court on Thursday threw out a challenge by the state of Alabama to a judicial finding that a death row inmate convicted of a 1997 murder is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible under the US constitution for the death penalty.In this highly unusual move, and in...

Met Palantir row gets to heart of how public services should use AI

The Guardian • 3 months ago

The UK’s largest police force says Palantir is the only company that can supply what it needs. Is that worth the increasing controversy that comes with them?London mayor Sadiq Khan blocks £50m Met police deal with PalantirIt’s bot vs bobby. The row over whether the controversial US AI company Palantir should be paid £50m to help the Metropolitan police hits to the heart of how public services will...

Former head of Minnesota non-profit gets nearly 42-year prison sentence for fraud

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Aimee Bock ran Feeding Our Future, which claimed it helped provide millions of meals to children during the pandemicSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailA federal judge has sentenced Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock to nearly 42 years in prison for orchestrating what prosecutors called the largest pandemic fraud scheme in the country.Thursday’s sentencing follows a $250m plot that...

Prospect of Labour leadership race brings out different sides of rivals

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Burnham and Streeting’s latest stances confound caricatures of left and right as party faces electoral bindThe Labour party has seemed to inhabit three parallel worlds over the past fortnight.There is a prime minister celebrating good news on the economy and lower migration figures and breezily insisting he will fight the next election, but with his party intent on deposing him. Continue reading.....

US homeland security put out alert on comedian who created parody ICE tip website

The Guardian • 3 months ago

DHS issued ‘Bolo’ for Ben Palmer, whose videos of calls with members of the public who thought they were reporting immigrants went viralThe Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has circulated a “Be on the Lookout” alert to law enforcement nationwide, targeting a comedian whose satire of US immigration enforcement went viral.The subject of the alert, known as a “Bolo”, was Ben Palmer, a Nashville-...

Ebola: US ban on travellers from DRC, Uganda or South Sudan ‘not the solution’

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Africa CDC says restrictions could increase public health risks and highlight ‘deeper structural injustice’ in global healthA US travel ban for people coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in response to the Ebola outbreak could make the situation worse, critics have said.The outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday and co...

Jeffrey Epstein assistant fiercely denies she was an accomplice and claims he abused her

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Sarah Kellen told lawmakers that convicted sex offender ‘sexually and psychologically abused me … and gaslit me’Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email One of Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime assistants has fiercely denied she was an accomplice of the convicted sex offender during a congressional interview, claiming she was “sexually and psychologically abused” by the late financier.“I am here...

Diplomat who abruptly left Washington embassy was honoured by the king

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Charles conferred LVO after his US visit on James Roscoe who had been standing in for Peter MandelsonA top diplomat who abruptly left his post at the British embassy in Washington earlier this week after standing in as interim ambassador for Peter Mandelson has been honoured by King Charles.No reason has yet been given for James Roscoe’s departure. An investigation is now under way into the leak o...

Trump insists White House ballroom security costs would be ‘very good expenditure’ despite Republican backlash – live

The Guardian • 3 months ago

President claims ‘I don’t need money for the ballroom’ as Senate Republicans expected to ditch $1bn funding plan amid fears of alienating votersSign up for the Breaking News US emailSenate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and other Democrats spoke held a news conference, ahead of the vote-a-rama Thursday morning.“The Republican agenda is one big broken promi...

Tui ends sponsorship of Married at First Sight after sexual misconduct allegations

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Travel firm exits partnership after Panorama revealed allegations by three women against on-screen husbandsThe travel operator Tui has ended its sponsorship of the UK and Australian versions of Married at First Sight on Channel 4 after contestants on the former made allegations of rape and sexual misconduct.An edition of the BBC’s Panorama programme this week revealed allegations by two anonymous ...

Trump insists White House ballroom security costs would be ‘very good expenditure’ despite GOP backlash – live

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Virginia judge dismisses charges against assistant principal in teacher shooting case

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Ebony Parker was accused of ignoring warnings about six-year-old boy who shot and wounded his teacher in 2023Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailA Virginia judge has thrown out a case against an elementary school principal who was accused of failing to act on warnings that a six-year-old student had brought a gun to school, leading to the wounding of his teacher in 2023.The eight-coun...

Assisted dying bill could return after ballot for private member’s bills

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Two MPs who came in top five of draw backed Kim Leadbeater’s bill in the CommonsCampaigners have a narrow path to revive the assisted dying bill after two MPs who backed it came in the top five of the new private member’s bill ballot.Supporters of Kim Leadbeater’s original private member’s bill, which ran out of time to be passed, have the chance to use the Parliament Act to bypass the Lords if th...

Assisted dying bill could return after ballot of private members’ bills

The Guardian • 3 months ago

One of two MPs who came in top five of vote could be persuaded to take on Kim Leadbeater’s bill in the Commons Assisted dying campaigners have a narrow path to revive the bill after two MPs who backed the change came in the top five of the new private member’s bill ballot.Supporters of Kim Leadbeater’s original private member’s bill, which ran out of time to be passed, have the chance to use the P...

New weight-loss shot appears to outperform other obesity drugs on market

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Eli Lilly says participants in a sizable trial of retatrutide lost much more weight compared to other weight-loss drugsA new weight-loss drug has helped participants in a sizable trial lose much more weight than other obesity drugs already on the market – up to an average of 28% of their body weight – Eli Lilly announced Thursday.The Indiana-based pharmaceutical company in a press statement said t...

TUC leader ‘angry’ at state of Labour but says it can recover to win next election

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Exclusive: Paul Nowak recognises frustration with Keir Starmer’s government but urges party not to be fatalisticThe UK’s most powerful union leader has said he is angry at the state of Labour and Keir Starmer’s government and warned that significant change is needed to prevent Reform UK from winning power.In his first intervention as the battle rages over the future of the Labour leadership, the T...

Many Nato countries not spending enough to support Ukraine, says Rutte – as it happened

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Nato chief delivers speech in Sweden as he hints at further changes to US military commitments to EuropeJust as Pavel was speaking in Prague, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was pursuing escalation of the conflict between the two countries.It’s quite a claim given (checks notes) Russia’s continued and relentless inva...

OpenAI makes breakthrough on 80-year-old maths problem

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Company says work on Paul Erdős planar unit distance problem shows advance in AI reasoningOpenAI has claimed a further advance in AI reasoning after its technology successfully tackled an 80-year-old maths problem.The company behind ChatGPT said it had made a breakthrough with a challenge first posed by Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős in 1946: the planar unit distance problem. Continue reading....

Former head of Minnesota nonprofit gets nearly 42-year prison sentence for fraud

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Aimee Bock ran Feeding Our Future, which claimed it helped provide millions of meals to children during the pandemicSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailA judge on Thursday handed down an extraordinary prison sentence – nearly 42 years – to the former leader of a Minnesota nonprofit who was convicted in a staggering $250m fraud case that helped ignite an immigration crackdown by the Tr...

Five arrested after police investigate alleged electoral fraud in Tameside

The Guardian • 3 months ago

Greater Manchester police made the arrests after concerns over several independent candidates in May’s local electionFive people have been arrested as part of a police investigation into allegations that fake independent candidates were used to influence the outcome of a local election in Tameside.Greater Manchester police said four men and a woman, aged between 23 and 47, were arrested on suspici...

Cubans outraged at US charges against Raúl Castro as fears of military strikes grow

The Guardian • 3 months ago

It’s a nerve-racking time for Havana neighbours of top Cuban officials as fears of US attack mountA new question in being asked in Havana as people digest the news that the US has brought criminal charges against Cuba’s 94-year-old former president, Raúl Castro: who’s your neighbour?If you happen to live near a senior figure in Cuba’s government or armed forces, others suck their teeth in an expre...