The Guardian

Government faces call for transparency on former peer’s involvement amid fears he may have leaked more sensitive information Peter Mandelson’s involvement with the US tech company Palantir must be exposed to full public transparency, campaigners have said, amid fears he may have leaked more sensitive information than is alleged in his emails to Jeffrey Epstein. Palantir, an $300bn startup that pr…

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 bill would mandate use of the biblical term ‘Judea and Samaria’ after a similar effort passed in Arkansas Florida legislators are pushing to pass legislation that would ban the use of the term “West Bank” in K-12 public schools and state agencies, including public colleges and universities, and mandate use of the term “Judea and Samaria”. The West Bank is the internationally recognized term f…

No 10 is under huge pressure to reveal exactly how the former peer was vetted for his job as US ambassador After the release of a vast tranche of documents and emails that shed further light on the close relationship between Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein, the government has come under intense pressure to release details about its vetting process before Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassad…

Casey Wasserman has said he regrets 2003 emails with the convicted sex trafficker Several Los Angeles officials have urged Casey Wasserman, the chair of the LA28 Olympics committee, to step down after emails between him and the convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell surfaced. The emails date back to 2003 and appear among more than 3m files related to Jeffrey Epstein released by the justice de…

Commons select committee chair says the DWP had repeatedly failed to prioritise the vulnerable and slow to fix errors The government’s most senior welfare official has been accused of presiding over a “culture of complacency” that led to thousands of unpaid carers inadvertently running up huge benefit debts. Debbie Abrahams, the chair of the work and pensions select committee, said the Department…

Campaigners say they appreciate attempt to use Cornish but mistake points to need for more access to language Shoppers in Cornwall could have been forgiven for feeling bemused after a supermarket put up bilingual signs – in Welsh. A branch of Tesco in Helston – about 200 miles from south Wales by road – pointed shoppers towards pysgod, which is Welsh, not Cornish, for fish. It also labelled sweet…

British firms could get more opportunities to supply defence equipment to Kyiv if agreement can be reached The UK could reap greater benefits from a €90bn (£78bn) EU loan for Ukraine, if it agrees to help pay the cost of borrowing, after European countries signed off long-awaited financial aid for Kyiv. British firms could have greater opportunities to supply defence equipment to Ukraine funded b…

Marius Borg Høiby, 29, on trial accused of 38 crimes, broke down in tears as he claimed press had harassed him for years Marius Borg Høiby, the son of Norway’s crown princess, has told a court he does not remember taking pictures and videos found on his phone that police say show him sexually assaulting a woman at a royal residence. Høiby, Mette-Marit’s son from a relationship before her marriage…

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, shot dead on Tuesday, appealed to ‘a nostalgia for a past that is remembered as more secure’ The assassination of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi , the second son of Libya’s late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, is a reminder of both how violent Libya remains more than 15 years after his father’s demise – and how much Saif had come to be perceived as a threat to Libya’s governing elite. The…

Polish national Roksana Lecka, sentenced to eight years in prison for child cruelty, will be deported on Thursday The father of a toddler who was abused by a nursery worker in a “sadistic” campaign of cruelty says he is “upset and frustrated” that the worker is to be deported to Poland on Thursday, less than five months into an eight-year sentence. Roksana Lecka, a Polish national, was convicted …

Ex-Trump adviser adds to elections officials’ concern about potential interference from Trump administration in voting Steve Bannon , the former White House strategist and rightwing podcast host, said he wants to see immigration agents at the polls in November, a proposal that election officials have feared. Bannon has no formal power, but is an influential figure on the far right and is closely …

Ryan Routh who tried to kill president in 2024 also gets a consecutive seven-year sentence for gun conviction A man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison. US district judge Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh’s fate in the same Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab hi…

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…

Vatican appears to have ordered erasure of restored work, which artist confessed he had made to resemble PM The face of a winged angel bearing a striking resemblance to the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has been erased from a fresco in a historic Rome church, putting an end to a debacle that embarrassed the Vatican. The image on the wall painting in a chapel of the Basilica of St Lawrence…