The Guardian

National Highways agency uses virtual reality test to see if drivers are distracted by introduction of low-flying drones I’m barrelling down the motorway at 70mph, swerving from lane to lane, with cars speeding past me. There’s just one problem, I don’t have a driving licence. Or at least it would be a problem were this a real road test. But despite the life-like surroundings, I am in fact triall…

Teacher Brett Byatt was onboard train during incident that killed driver and left 33 people seriously injured Two trains collide near Bedford A survivor of the Bedford train crash has told how bodies were flung across the carriages, leaving people with broken bones and deep wounds after the rush hour collision on Friday night. Brett Byatt, a teacher from Bedford, was onboard the East Midlands Rai…

Lanchester Wines in north-east England uses heat from a disused coalmine to maintain wine temperatures and with 23,000 flooded mines in the UK, there’s huge potential for more businesses and homes to follow its lead Shove them in a fridge, stash them in a cellar – this is how most people store their favourite bottles of wine. But if you have warehouses full of thousands of vintages, you have to t…

Ministers say PM faces being forced out by party if he does not act, with one calling his departure inevitable Cabinet loyalists tell Starmer he has the weekend to set out timetable for exit ‘Within 10 mins, he’d nicked it’: illustrator on his ubiquitous image of Burnham ‘Within 10 mins, Andy had nicked it’: illustrator on his ubiquitous image of Andy Burnham It was shortly after Andy Burnham’s f…

Supplier Agratas sacks its main building contractor on the government-backed project amid a budget mismatch Jaguar Land Rover faces the risk of delays to the first deliveries of electric car batteries from a £5.2bn government-backed factory in Somerset after construction problems. The British carmaker is planning to rely on the Agratas factory in Bridgwater, Somerset, to supply the batteries for …

Exclusive: Tourism minister says another likely record year of visitor growth is not a worry amid move to welcome tourists out of season and market less frequented areas Spain is redoubling its efforts to push its tourist appeal beyond the familiar “sun and sand and coast” model as it prepares for another record-breaking year in which the number of foreign visitors could reach 100 million for the…

Officials expand safety measures as French capital prepares for huge annual street celebration Paris is preparing for a street party of unprecedented scale on Sunday, as more than 2 million people are expected to gather for the Fête de la Musique amid a huge influx of music fans from the UK and warnings of record temperatures. France’s annual free street music festival, which has been running for…

Exclusive: European Commission planning to rewrite key law to allow water-intensive mines in regions suffering from drought The European Commission plans to rewrite the EU’s flagship water protection law to speed up the development of critical minerals mines, despite many being located in drying and water-stressed regions, analysis has found. Mining is a water-intensive industry, requiring large …

In ‘middle Israel’ there are fears Iran could rebuild stronger – and there is particular ire for Donald Trump In the Tree brasserie off Herzl Street in Rehovot, there was much that almost everyone agreed on. Few contested that the ceasefire deal concluded by Iran and the US a few days earlier was very bad for Israel. “We were betrayed by President Trump,” said Avi Perez, 55. They believed, too, t…

Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency to use International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition for ‘regulatory work’ Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australia’s health watchdog has adopted a contested definition of antisemitism to guide its regulatory work. The move has been welcomed by the nation’s peak Jewish body while the Australia Palestine Advoc…

Apart from effort to electrify, there were geopolitical tensions around climate science and the 1.5C goal Electrifying the world – with electric vehicles , electric heating and cooling, and modernised heavy industry – could be the next biggest step towards phasing out fossil fuels, replacing the 80% of global energy that still comes from hydrocarbons. As using electrical energy is much more effic…

The minister for agriculture, Julie Collins, confirms case of H5N1 bird flu in Western Australia, with another suspected The deadly H5N1 bird flu strain has arrived on the Australian mainland with test results confirming a bird found on the Western Australian coast was positive for the disease. The state’s agriculture minister, Julie Collins, confirmed a brown skua found unwell last Sunday at Cap…

New craft, called VC-25B Bridge, had provoked protest since $400m jet wildly exceeds limit on unsolicited gifts Donald Trump unveiled the new, temporary Air Force One at a hangar at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Friday, a day after White House officials bid farewell to one of two Boeing 747s used to transport presidents for more than 30 years. The new jet, designated VC-25B and decked out in …

Ensuring fair compensation for those affected by legacies of enslavement and measures to address debt burdens, part of 18-point strategic roadmap More than money: the logic of slavery reparations A global framework for reparatory justice has been adopted at a conference in Ghana. Heads of state, governments and other officials adopted the strategy on Friday at a gathering in a hotel in the capita…

US-Iran meeting in Switzerland over implementation of deal cancelled amid clashes in southern Lebanon Israel and Hezbollah agreed to renew a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon on Friday after 24 hours of intense violence that posed an early challenge to the new agreement between the US and Iran to end their conflict. A meeting due to take place on Friday between the US and Iran in Switzerland to discus…