Former US vice-president also critical of Donald Trump and Bill Gates as negotiations begin in earnest
Hello comrades, this is Nina Lakhani in chilly New York City taking over the blog for the next few hours. Thanks very much to my colleague Matt Taylor in London Town who will be back in the hot seat on Friday morning.
Leading climate activists and influencers have signed a letter criticising PR firm Edelman over its role at the Cop30 summit in Brazil.
Connection of near-ubiquitous EBV to autoimmune disease affecting about 1 in 1,000 people may spur hunt for vaccine
A common childhood virus appears to be the trigger for the autoimmune disease lupus, according to groundbreaking research.
The study suggests that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which for most people is harmless, can cause immune cells to “go rogue” and mistakenly attack the body’s own tissues. The team behind the work said that uncovering the cause of lupus could revolutionise treatments.
It was certainly a strong look, impossible to ignore, something only a top-level footballer could carry off – and even then, the jury was out. When Ezri Konsa strolled in to preview Thursday’s World Cup qualifier against Serbia at Wembley, the England defender did so in what, at first glance, appeared to be a cross between a pair of slippers and oversized Crocs. In garish, fluorescent red.
On closer inspection, it was possible to make out grooves and nodules on them, and then it was time for the science part. Apparently, if you wear these your concentration improves. Well, that is according to the manufacturer. Something to do with the pressure points on the foot, perhaps. Was Konsa convinced? Unclear. How about Thomas Tuchel? Ditto.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is facing questions from his fellow G7 foreign ministers about the legality of the US strikes in the Caribbean on ships it says it suspects of carrying drugs.
The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, criticised the military operations, saying they could contribute to instability in the region, but his suggestion that the attacks were unlawful was also a rare criticism of the Trump administration.
Growing calls for Morgan McSweeney to go after extraordinary briefing operation against Wes Streeting
Keir Starmer is coming under intense pressure from a wide range of ministers and MPs to sack his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, after No 10 was accused of an extraordinary briefing operation against the health secretary, Wes Streeting.
Starmer is understood to have told MPs he will not sack his chief of staff and would not respond to several demands to ensure there were “consequences” for the briefers.
As polls suggest that Viktor Orbán’s authoritarian rule is under threat, Brussels can only wait and hope
During the US presidential election campaign of 2016, Viktor Orbán was the only European Union leader to back Donald Trump. Which was hardly surprising. Whether in relation to the the normalisation of great replacement theory, or the bullying and harassment of the media, Mr Orbán more or less wrote the playbook for the Maga movement. The former White House strategist Steve Bannon has eulogised Hungary’s prime minister as the “Trump before Trump”.
Last week, ahead of crucial Hungarian elections in less than six months’ time, the US president returned some political favours. As Mr Orbán seeks a fifth consecutive term presiding over a nation which he boasts of having turned into an illiberal democracy, his Fidesz party trails in the polls. As well as a few signed Maga baseball caps, an Orbán visit to Washington yielded considerably more valuable pre-election gifts.
Eighty-one year-old, who has prostate cancer, can now be transferred from Algeria to Germany for medical treatment
The French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal has been pardoned and is to be released from prison, the Algerian presidential office said in a statement on Wednesday.
The move, which will mean Sansal can be transferred to Germany for medical treatment, comes after the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, urged Algeria to free Sansal.
Ukraine president also calls for sanctions against friend and former business partner, saying ‘there must be maximum integrity’
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has moved to contain growing public outrage in Ukraine over a corruption scandal in the energy sector by firing two ministers who are accused of involvement in a large-scale bribery scheme.
Ukraine’s president said the justice minister Herman Halushchenko and energy minister Svitlana Grynchuk could no longer remain in their jobs. He also called for personal sanctions against his friend and former business partner Timur Mindich, the scheme’s alleged organiser.
Men appear in court accused of more than 40 offences against teenage girls between 2022 and 2025
Seven men have been charged with alleged offences against 11 teenage girls as part of an investigation into what police have called “group-based child sexual exploitation” in Bristol.
The men are accused of more than 40 offences between 2022 and this year. The investigation began in November 2023 after concerns were raised about the sexual exploitation of a teenage girl.
Mohamed Arafe, 19, of Speedwell in Bristol. He has been charged with five counts of arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child, one of causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child, one of sexual assault, one of being concerned in the supply of cocaine and a further count of being concerned in the supply of ecstasy.
Sina Omari, 20, of Eastville in Bristol. He has been charged with two counts of rape, four counts of arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child, one of causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child, two counts of making an indecent photograph of a child, one of being concerned in the supply of cocaine and a further count of being concerned in the supply of ecstasy.
Wadie Sharaf, 21, of Westbury Park in Bristol. He has been charged with one count of rape, one of attempted rape, three counts of sexual assault and a further count of sexual activity with a child.
Hussain Bashar, 19, of Southmead in Bristol. He has been charged with one count of rape.
Mohammed Kurdi, 21, of Henbury in Bristol. He has been charged with two counts of rape, two counts of arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child, one count of supplying ecstasy and a further count of supplying cannabis.
Sardam Ahmed, 19, of no fixed address. He has been charged with four counts of rape, one of arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child, one of distributing an indecent photograph of a child, one of being concerned in the supply of cocaine and a further count of being concerned in the supply of ecstasy.
Ihab al-Eisawi, 22, of Fishponds, Bristol. He has been charged with two counts of rape and one of sexual assault.
Cabinet says explosion near Red Fort that killed 12 is suspected to have been perpetrated by ‘anti-national forces’
India has confirmed it is treating the explosion that killed 12 people outside Delhi’s Red Fort on Monday as a “terror incident” perpetrated by “anti-national forces”.
The statement by the cabinet, led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, confirmed mounting speculation that a terrorist attack was behind the blast that took place during peak time in one of the capital’s busiest areas and outside one of India’s major landmarks.
Sarah Jessica Parker swept all before her at the Booker prize ceremony, but is fame the best way to encourage reading?
In these turbulent times, we take small joys where we can find them. And this week we’ll take this: the spectacle of various literary people at the Booker prize award ceremony jamming themselves into photos alongside Sarah Jessica Parker. The actor – if you missed the long piece about it in the New York Times, or the many social media posts promoting Parker’s involvement – served as a judge for the Booker this year, a process that required her to read 153 books, some of them on the New York subway while being followed by a film crew. “Oh let me try!!!!” Parker had posted to Booker organisers last year, and for reasons that became obvious this week, they did.
I know what you are going to say; that anything short of full-throated support for Parker’s adorable engagement with books in general and the Booker prize in particular is just unacceptable snobbery. There is nothing wrong with an actor involving herself in literary life or using her cultural weight to promote literacy. And – it goes without saying – we are all weepingly grateful to anyone with a platform bigger than that of the dowdy stay-at-home novelist who harnesses her glamour and spotlight for good. That celebrity book clubs have become the natural PR extension of taking up animal charities or becoming a UN goodwill ambassador is, surely, something to be celebrated. Who among us can fail to welcome Mindy Kaling, or Emma Watson, or Jenna Bush Hager in their fight against dwindling attention spans and addiction to screens?
Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
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The US president has threatened the BBC with a lawsuit over the editing of a Trump speech in an edition of Panorama
The BBC is prepared to formally apologise to Donald Trump as part of its efforts to resolve his billion-dollar legal threat over its editing of one of his speeches, the Guardian understands.
Detention of Dong on espionage charges has been criticised by human rights and press freedom organisations
A court in Beijing is expected to rule on Thursday in the appeal of Dong Yuyu, a Chinese journalist who is serving a seven-year jail sentence on espionage charges.
The detention of Dong, a senior columnist with a long career in Chinese state media, has been criticised by the US government and by international human rights and press freedom organisations.
Is it time to start channelling Mary Poppins? Some graduates are eschewing entry-level jobs to earn £150k or more looking after the children of the absurdly wealthy
Critics say constitutional amendment, which will also limit supreme court’s independence, is ‘funeral for democracy’
Pakistan’s parliament has passed a controversial amendment to its constitution that will expand the powers of the army chief and grant him lifelong legal immunity while limiting the independence of the supreme court, in a move critics described as a “funeral for democracy”.
Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s powerful army chief who is widely seen as a de facto ruler of the country, was the main benefactor from the 27th constitutional amendment, which was passed by the parliamentary lower house on Wednesday.
Skims plans to use new capital to broaden its intimates lines, and expand further into apparel and activewear
Skims, founded by reality TV star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian along with CEO Jens Grede, said on Wednesday it had raised $225mn in new capital, valuing the shapewear label at $5bn.
Kardashian’s ventures, including her cosmetics brand SKKN, have attracted young shoppers and benefited from her vast social media following. Similarly, other celebrity-backed brands have also drawn venture capital investment, as firms bet on the marketing power and built-in audiences of high-profile founders to drive consumer demand.
A new book, Brothers of the Gun, explores the unlikely friendship between a complicated lawman and a cursed gambler
There’s a famous line from a John Ford western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Mark Lee Gardner is a leading historian of the old west whose new book, Brothers of the Gun: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and a Reckoning in Tombstone, concerns two major figures in such history. He doesn’t like Ford’s line.
“Every historian uses it, they just beat it to death,” Gardner says cheerfully, by video from Bozeman, Montana.
White House press secretary says, ‘Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar-a-Lago until President Trump kicked him out because Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and he was a creep’
In a new batch of emails released by Democrats on the House oversight committee, Jeffrey Epstein wrote that Donald Trump knew about the late financier and sex-offender’s conduct. In the three emails released, Epstein apparently told his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump “spent hours” at his house with one of Epstein’s victims.
In two other emails to author Michael Wolff, Epstein wrote that “of course he knew about the girls”, referring to the now-president. According to the exchanges, Epstein also solicited Wolff’s advice about how he should handle Trump discussing their friendship in an interview with CNN. “I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff writes. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt.”
Neville Husband committed hundreds of offences while working at facility in County Durham from 1969 to 1985
A man who worked as a prison officer and caterer in a youth detention centre was able to rape and torture boys for three decades while the abuse was “ignored and dismissed”, according to a report labelling him as possibly Britain’s worst ever sex offender.
Neville Husband carried out at least 388 sexual offences against young men and boys between 1969 and 1985 while working at Medomsley detention centre in County Durham, but is believed have committed hundreds more crimes, which would take the total past the 450 committed by Jimmy Savile.
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