The Guardian

Account of visit to Gaza by French professor describes Israeli military attacks on security personnel protecting convoys A historian who spent more than a month in Gaza at the turn of the year says he saw “utterly convincing” evidence that Israel supported looters who attacked aid convoys during the conflict. Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East studies at France’s prestigious Sciences P…

Nathan Law says ‘moral obligation’ to Hongkongers should extend to anyone fleeing from political persecution An exiled leader of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong has said the UK government risks reneging on a commitment to people from its former colony in its shake-up of legal immigration routes. Nathan Law, a former Hong Kong politician who arrived in the UK in 2020 and has a bounty on hi…

E3G thinktank warns retrofit sector could shed 10,000 skilled jobs as small firms struggle to survive Cuts to a scheme for insulation and heatpumps for low-income households will leave homes damp, draughty and unsafe over winter, experts have said. Housing have asked for a one-year extension to the scheme to ensure continuity and prevent small retrofit firms going bust. Companies say funding for …

Some small business owners doubt that even strong holiday sales will ease impact of tough year plagued by uncertainty Donald Trump’s tariffs have increased prices on an array of popular holiday goods and driven a “massive” number of small firms out of business, industry leaders have warned. On Small Business Saturday , firms have their fingers crossed that strong holiday sales will ease the impac…

Welsh government grants used to fund football club even though it is owned by wealthy movie stars Wrexham AFC has risen meteorically through the English football leagues thanks to the deep pockets of Hollywood movie star owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Yet the club has also had £18m in help from other, unwitting backers: Welsh taxpayers. The club has received almost £18m in nonrepayable …

More than 100 still missing on Sumatra island, where authorities to start cloud seeding to reduce rain, as Thailand sees one of worst floods in a decade The death toll from devastating floods and landslides in south-east Asia climbed past 350 on Saturday as clean-up and search and rescue operations got under way in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Heavy monsoon rain overwhelmed swathes of the th…

Dawn Butler leads calls for humanitarian visas and fee waivers for vulnerable relatives of UK nationals affected by storm British MPs have joined campaigners calling for more aid and humanitarian visas for Jamaicans to enter the UK after Hurricane Melissa demolished parts of the country, plunging hundreds of thousands of people into a humanitarian crisis. The UK has pledged £7.5m emergency funds …

The PM becomes the first Australian leader to celebrate a wedding while in office with a private ceremony followed by a reception at his official residence, the Lodge Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has married his partner, Jodie Haydon, in Canberra, making him the first Australian leader to tie the knot in office. The …

Locked away in prison for decades, Marwan Barghouti is a longstanding advocate for a two-state solution A global campaign is being launched to secure the release of Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian prisoner seen by many as the best hope of leading a future Palestinian state, as negotiations continue in the context of the current Gaza ceasefire. The campaign, being led by Barghouti’s West Bank-ba…

Exclusive: Rail regulator pulls Avanti service from timetable from mid-December but it is needed for staff travel The good news for rail travel between Manchester and London is that a morning train will continue to link England’s biggest cities in under two hours. The bad news: passengers will no longer be able to get onboard. The rail regulator has axed one of Britain’s fastest and most lucrativ…

Exclusive : Concerns over impact on health and environment, as well as £1.63bn in avoided landfill tax The UK is estimated to have at least 8,000 illegal waste sites, containing approximately 13m tonnes of rubbish, research has revealed. The scale of the criminal dumping means at least £1.63bn of landfill taxes have been avoided, according to an analysis of data from the satellite company Air & S…

Washington’s Putin-appeasing plan for peace in Ukraine has failed, but many heard death knell sounded for European reliance on US protection Kaja Kallas, the European Union foreign policy chief, asked her officials this week to dig up the number of times Russia had – in its various guises – invaded other states in the 20th and 21st centuries. The answer that came back was 19 states, on 33 occasio…

Families are combing hospitals hoping to find their loved ones as about 200 people still listed as missing, and at least 128 killed An outpouring of grief was set to sweep Hong Kong on Saturday as an official, three-day mourning period began with a moment of silence for the 128 people killed in one of the city’s deadliest fires . City leader John Lee, along with senior ministers and dozens of top…

Hernández was convicted in 2024 of accepting millions in bribes to protect cocaine shipments Donald Trump has said he will grand a pardon to Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras who is serving a 45-year prison sentence in the US on drug trafficking and weapons charges. “I will be granting a Full and Complete Pardon to Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez who has been, accor…

Immediate software upgrade ordered by Airbus after US mid-air incident threatens airport chaos across Australia Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Jetstar has grounded some of its Airbus fleet and cancelled domestic flights across Australia after the aerospace manufacturer issued a global recall of its A320 fleet. Airbus said on Friday it was ordering an immediate softwa…