The Guardian

Six years on from Covid crisis, Republicans still politicizing science – and Fauci remains a political punching bag A US Senate committee hearing featuring Dr Anthony Fauci revealed at least one certainty: six years after the pandemic, politicizing science remains a vital political tactic. The high-profile hearing was pitched by its Republican chair, Rand Paul of Kentucky, as an investigation int…

Details of parents and staff, including email addresses and phone numbers, are among data taken by cybercriminals The Department for Education and a police database have been targeted by a cyber-attack, exposing more than 740,000 pieces of data. Details of government officials, senior school leaders, university staff, police officers and members of the public have been taken by hackers. Continue …

Report on Interlochen Center for the Arts details sexual allegations against 47 faculty and staff members since 1950s Two people who attended a prestigious Michigan fine arts school reported conduct of a sexual nature by Jeffrey Epstein , a major donor, according to an investigation that also uncovered dozens of allegations spanning decades against nearly 50 other people. Interlochen Center for t…

Green party leader says post ‘inadvertent mistake’ after Reform UK said it ‘incited murder’, while police say no further action will be taken The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, has said he made an “inadvertent mistake” by sharing an Instagram post of a man wearing a T-shirt featuring an image of a guillotine and the phrase “we’re only making plans for Nigel”, but he repeatedly said he would n…

Right-wing media hostility helped sink his reform plans in 2010, but the new PM’s passionate speech suggests there is now clear political will for change For campaigners perpetually disappointed by the failure of England’s political classes to fix England’s creaking adult social care system, the fear was that Andy Burnham’s long-trailed speech would be less Brave New World, more Groundhog Day. Bu…

Planned overhaul forms part of president’s broader pattern of directing changes in Washington after arch and ballroom Donald Trump is due to announce a $22bn plan to rebuild Washington’s Dulles international airport on Wednesday after the US president personally weighed in on the design of the capital’s main international gateway. A White House official confirmed an announcement would be made, af…

Repeated heatwaves and strong winds alarm experts, who warn blazes are becoming harder to quell Two firefighters have died while tackling a wildfire in Crete, the Greek fire department has said, as extreme heat hinders efforts to control blazes ravaging southern Europe. The arc of brutal fires, which runs from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean, and from the Scottish Highlands to the…

Richard Tice had been referred to standards commissioner over undeclared sum from Farage aide George Cottrell Parliament’s standards watchdog has declined to investigate a complaint made against Richard Tice over an undeclared loan of nearly £80,000 from Nigel Farage’s aide George Cottrell . The Liberal Democrats had referred Reform’s deputy leader to the parliamentary standards commissioner, whi…

Johannes Kongsnes Natland was recruited to murder unknown person by international crime gang linked to Iran A Norwegian teenager has been found guilty of travelling to England to carry out a killing ordered by an international crime gang linked to Iran. Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, from Stavanger, Norway, agreed to shoot an unknown person for €25,000 (£21,500) in March last year. Two days after…

FSB puts Pavel Durov on international wanted lists and says his messaging app is used for sabotage and murder Russian officials have charged Pavel Durov, the founder and chief executive of the messaging app Telegram, with aiding terrorism. The charges against the 41-year-old Russian-born billionaire, who lives in the Gulf, are the latest step by the Kremlin to bring the internet and digital commu…

Transport for London claims polluting diesel vehicles had been able to enter clean air zone without having to pay Transport for London is pursuing a potential £1bn legal action against car manufacturers over vehicles that it argues should not have been allowed to drive freely in the capital’s clean-air zone. The high court heard that TfL was making allegations of “fraud and negligence” against ma…

Riyadh’s decision to join US in strikes on Iran-backed militia further complicates widening and ‘unpredictable’ war US-Saudi strikes on Iran-backed militia in Iraq on Wednesday have pushed the region into “uncharted territory”, analysts have warned. Amid stark warnings of a widening and increasingly “unpredictable” conflict, Riyadh’s decision to publicly join the US in striking sites associated w…

Kumamoto shaken by 6.8-magnitude quake, knocking out power and damaging buildings, as people remain trapped inside shopping centre A 6.8-magnitude earthquake has shaken south Japan, killing at least two people and leaving at least 100 people injured. Some are trapped and presumed dead inside a shopping mall. The earthquake hit Kumamoto prefecture on the southern Kyushu island late on Tuesday afte…

Exclusive: Scientists say about 5,000 fewer southern bent-wing bats have been recorded at a key maternity site for the species Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A sudden decline in critically endangered bats is troubling experts, who recorded about 5,000 fewer southern bent-wing bats than usual at Naracoorte’s “bat cave” this summer. These tiny russet-toned microbats ro…

Clean Energy Council calls for a national, legislated scheme to funnel benefits of hosting renewables projects back to local councils Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here Organised campaigns against wind and solar energy have proved “extremely effective” in undermining community support for renewable energy but enthusiasm for electric vehicles ha…