The Guardian

Thanksgiving travel and low vaccination rates have contributed to 27 new cases in state during past week South Carolina health officials have reported an “accelerating” measles outbreak in the state in the wake of Thanksgiving travel and a lack of vaccinations, with hundreds of people in quarantine. The outbreak, which appears centered on a single church and several schools in Spartanburg county …

Agreement comes amid anxiety in Hollywood over impact of AI on the industry, expression and rights of creators Walt Disney has announced a $1bn equity investment in OpenAI, enabling the AI start-up’s Sora video generation tool to use its characters. Users of Sora will be able to generate short, user-prompted social videos that draw on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters a…

Move marks a major escalation of Trump’s pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro. Plus, how Hasan Piker became one of the biggest voices on the US left Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up here Good morning. US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in a major escalation of Donald Trump’s four-month pressure campaign against the South American country’s dict…

Department of Finance opts not to take up a review’s recommendation that public servants only use business class on flights of three hours or more Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Anthony Albanese says federal bureaucrats should look for “value for money at all times” despite the government rejecting expert calls to tighten the rules around expensing short-haul busines…

NSW housing policy states higher density developments must allocate some ‘affordable’ units – but in some suburbs these can still fetch up to $1,000 a week Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The trend of knocking down older blocks of flats to replace them with a smaller number of luxury apartments in parts of Sydney could see community support for development dive, feder…

Greens MP condemns ‘pathetic’ level of funding to deal with lead contamination in state’s far west Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast NSW Health resisted government advice to strengthen protections for children exposed to lead in Broken Hill, despite internal documents acknowledging that far lower blood lead levels than those recognised in current guidelines can harm dev…

With 53-day wait time for aged care assessment, advocate says some doctors are advising elderly to be admitted to hospital to speed up referral Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Anthony Albanese is pressing state and territory leaders to accept more than $20bn in extra spending for public hospitals or the federal government will pursue “other options” to end a protracte…

House of Commons calls on Keir Starmer to condemn Donald Trump’s ‘interference’ in European politics Europe live – latest updates The US is engaging in “extreme rightwing tropes” with echoes of the 1930s and threatening “chilling” interference in European democracies, British MPs warned ministers on Thursday. The House of Commons rounded on Donald Trump’s national security strategy , which stated…

Prime minister makes announcement before parliament vote on no-confidence motion filed by opposition The Bulgarian government is resigning after less than a year in office after a series of anti-corruption protests, the prime minister has said. Rosen Zhelyazkov’s announcement on Thursday came before a vote in parliament on a no-confidence motion filed by the opposition against the government. Con…

No more concessions, says minister after legislation was thwarted in upper house despite manifesto climbdown UK politics live – latest updates The government has vowed that there will be no more concessions on the employment rights bill and that it will force the Lords to vote on it again next week, after Conservative and cross-bench peers blocked it on Wednesday night. Ministers and trade unions…

Letters arguing research could harm participating children sent to medical regulators, health secretary and NHS Campaigners have begun a legal process intended to suspend a clinical trial of puberty blockers on the grounds that the research could prove harmful to the children taking part. The study was commissioned in response to last year’s Cass review of gender identity services, which found th…

Harold Wayne Nichols, who will be killed by lethal injection, confessed to killing Karen Pulley and raping other women Tennessee is preparing to execute Harold Wayne Nichols by lethal injection on Thursday for the 1988 rape and murder of Karen Pulley, a 20-year-old student at Chattanooga State University. Nichols confessed to killing Pulley as well as raping several other women in the Chattanooga…

Chinese online retailer targeted under rules limiting state help to companies Temu’s European headquarters in Dublin have been raided by EU regulators investigating a potential breach of foreign subsidy regulations. The Chinese online retailer, which is already in the European Commission’s spotlight over alleged failures to prevent illegal content being sold on its app and website, was raided las…

Guardian story helped to draw attention to planned hanging of Goli Kouhkan over death of abusive husband A child bride who was due to be executed this month in Iran over the death of her husband has had her life spared by his parents, who were paid the equivalent of £70,000 in exchange for their forgiveness. Goli Kouhkan, 25, has been on death row in Gorgan central prison in northern Iran for the…

Soldier’s account corroborates reports Viktoriia Roshchyna was taken to prison deep inside Russia, where it is believed she died Details of the last days in captivity of the Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died last year, have emerged with the witness account of a soldier who was with her when she was transported to a prison deep inside Russia. Roshchyna was seized while reporting f…